The C Major scales consists of seven notes.
These notes are as follows
The C Major scale is a diatonic scale, which simply means as you work through the scale you do so in one of two steps.
The two steps are
- Whole Step (W)
- Half Step (H)
The C Major step intervals are
Or to simplify
The 5 Patterns of the C Major Scale - Left Handed
A pattern is a set of notes that are played one after the other. There are five different patterns that can be played in C Major, each of which are inter-connected across the fretboard.
The notes of the scale are displayed on the fretboard by the light grey circles, with the darker blue circles highlighting the root notes. The root notes are always C tones. The numbers on each circle indicate which finger should play the note. The patterns are as follows
Left Handed Pattern 1
Left Handed Pattern 2
Left Handed Pattern 3
Left Handed Pattern 4
Left Handed Pattern 5
Related Chords for the C Major Scale
In order to work out which chords are related to the C Major Scale, we simply build a list of chords based on the degree on the scale.
The following chords are all related to the C Major Scale. Knowing which chords are related to the C Major Scale is very useful as any of these chords will work well over the scale.
| Degree | Chord Type | Scale Note | Tonic Chord | Tonic 7th Chord |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | maj | C | Cmaj | Cmaj7 |
| 2 | m | D | Dm | Dm7 |
| 3 | m | E | Em | Em7 |
| 4 | maj | F | Fmaj | Fmaj7 |
| 5 | maj | G | Gmaj | Gmaj7 |
| 6 | m | A | Am | Am7 |
| 7 | dim | B | Bdim | Bdim7 |
Songs in the Key of C Major
There are a huge number of songs in the key of C Major, here is just a small selection of well known songs by some of the biggest artists.
- Welcome Home (Sanitarium) by Metallica
- Imagine by John Lennon
- Run To The Hills by Iron Maiden
- Street Fighting Man by The Roling Stones
- Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me by Elton John