Mastering the "Golden Rule": A Guide to Major Scale Spelling

 

Mastering the "Golden Rule": A Guide to Heptatonic Scale Spelling

Whether you are a guitarist or a composer, understanding the logic behind scale spelling is essential for naming chords and making sense of music theory. While these rules are the foundation of Western music, they are specifically designed for heptatonic (7-note) scales.

1. The "Golden Rule": One of Each Letter

The most important thing to remember for any seven-note scale is that it must contain one—and only one—of each letter. Whether you are in the key of C or B-major, you must have exactly one A, one B, one C, one D, one E, one F, and one G. This rule is vital because it ensures that naming chords later on remains logical; if you skip letters or repeat them, the system for understanding what is happening in the music starts to fall apart.

2. The Limits of the Alphabet: 8 and 9 Note Scales

It is important to note that this "Golden Rule" is built around the seven-letter musical alphabet. While most common scales are heptatonic, 8-note (octatonic) and 9-note (enneatonic) scales exist. In these cases, naming becomes problematic because you are forced to repeat letters or skip them. As the vdeo below points out, if you end up with "two A's and no G," and things go "horribly wrong" when trying to name chords or make sense of the theory. For these larger scales, the standard one-letter-per-step rule simply cannot be maintained.

3. Locate the Semitones

To spell a major scale correctly, you must maintain the specific pattern of whole tones and semitones found in C Major:

• Between the 3rd and 4th notes.
• Between the 7th and 8th (root) notes.

When you start on a new note, such as B, you must adjust the notes with sharps or flats to ensure those semitones land in these exact positions. For example, in B Major, you use five sharps to keep those intervals correct while still having exactly one of each letter.

4. Sharps and Flats: Don't Mix!

A key characteristic of standard scales is that they typically use either sharps or flats, but not both. For instance, if you start a scale and determine the first interval requires a sharp, all other non-natural notes in that key will also be sharps. 

5. The Practical Choice: B-flat vs. A-sharp

A great exercise for mastering this is comparing the same pitch spelled two ways. While B-flat Major and A-sharp Major sound identical, spelling A-sharp Major requires a "whole bunch of sharps and double sharps" (like C## and F##) just to follow the one-letter-per-step rule. In the "real world," musicians always choose B-flat Major because it only requires two flats, making it much simpler to read and communicate.

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Chromatic Harmonisation

A lot of people get confused when it comes to understanding to the difference between diatonic and chromatic harmony but it's actually pretty simple. 
   Diatonic harmony is any chord that belongs to the home key - chromatic harmony is any chord that comes from elsewhere. So for instance in the key of C major an A major chord is chromatic as it contains a C# and that's a note that isn't part of C major naturally.

The trick is seeing the wood for the trees so to speak. To that end we're going to experiment with a very simple melody line in the key of G major.

B - C - D - E 

A simple harmonisation of that top line would be 

I - IV - V - IV or 

 G major - C major - D major - C  major

Into this we're going to introduce a chromatic note so our melody line is now:

B - C - D - D# - E

The D# is non diatonic (does not belong to the key of G major) so any chord we use to harmonise it will be chromatic. There are obviously a lot of possibilities but the chords that will work best are the ones that have connections with the chords before and after it. This is where the idea of false relations come in but first we need to be clear about.....

Diatonic chord movement

Take for instance the idea of a diatonic relationship of two chords a 3rd apart:

C major moving to A minor

C major is C E G 

A minor is A C E

One sounds like an extension of the other as they share two notes and the one note that changes is only moving one scale step. Obviously they're going to sound well together - they are connected by common notes. 

This can be done in the opposite direction also:

C major moving to E minor

C major is C E G 

E minor is E G B

The same logic applies. Two notes 'stick' - the E and the G. One note moves one scale step in this case the C moving to B.

False Relations

A false relation subverts this idea.

                                                          C major moving to Ab major

C major is C E G 

Ab major is Ab C Eb

Here they share one note and the two notes that move each move a semitone (chromatically) - one up and one down nicely following the rules of counterpoint. 

We hear a connection between the two chords but it's more ear catching, dramatic or 'coloured'. Have a think about the root of the word chromatic at this point and it's appropriateness in this context.

Most of the examples below use this technique. Where dominant 7ths are used this heightens the sense of tension and resolution. 

Note that the approach chord to the chromatic chord varies. The D can be harmonised with either a D or G major chord. The choices were made to maintain a 3rds relationship and to avoid stepwise movement. 

All the examples are notated and were done of the top of my head in a lesson so are by no means exhaustive. Dissect each one and look at the individual notes as they move from chord to chord. i.e voice leading. No tab here by the way! That's for losers!

To explore this concept further you could replace the D# topline note with another chromatic note elsewhere. A C# between the C & D notes would be a good choice. 

Note also that I've limited myself to major chords only. Minor, diminished and augmented chords can all be used successfully. The underlying factors that determine whether it'll sound good are the root movement and the voice leading.  

Here's video of me playing through the examples.

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Learning Songs

   Well if you viewed my post entitled "Getting your playing out there"  you'll no doubt have scored yourself the gig you've been looking for. Brilliant! The only thing is that now you've got another problem. Learning all the tunes they want you to play on the gig - next week! 
 Although I have a repetoire of hundreds of songs I still have to learn tunes at short notice all the time. After all, nobody knows all the thousands of songs there are out there. 

So here's how I approach learning sets quickly and efficiently. 

I create A5 sheets for each song containing just the critical information required to get through the song. A5 is more manageable on a gig but big enough to get most songs onto.

Roughly these are the steps I go through to distill the song down.

• Identify the key center and the main chord progressions for each section of the song
• Label these sections - Verse, Chorus middle 8 etc. It's actually not that important that your labels coincide with anyone else's as long as you know what they mean. 
• Work your way through the tune getting the structure clear in your mind and down on paper. 
• From there it'll be a matter of notating the exceptions to the likely Verse-Chorus repeat format. 
• I include rhythmic notation and simple melodic directions - just note letters and a contour.
• Stops are very important to get right. If you're playing when everyone else stops they're gonna notice! 
• Include vocal cues and reminders of extended sections

Here's an example sheet and a line by line breakdown. The song is the soul classic 'Hold back the Night'

Normally I write the title at the top but forgot on this occasion!

From top to bottom, line by line:

Intro chord sequence which also happens to be the Chorus sequence (not uncommon).

A triplet ascending chord pattern (a major feature of the song) 

A reminder of a specific arpeggiated verse pattern (again - an important detail)

From there it's just structure and any exceptions to the regular verse - chorus repetitions.

By the time I've prepared this I'll already know the song but I'll practice with it front of me for a while and quickly start to ignore it. Chances are I won't need it by the time comes to play it with the band but if I do it'll be clear to read from and will guide me through - even with my hand writing! 

If there are sets that you don't play often it's good to keep these sheets as they'll serve as an excellent memory aid and you'll be back up to speed more or less straight away.

 Over time you'll find your own ways of representing the important information.

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Harmonic Scales - Hearing chord tones

One of the trickiest aspects of improvising is negotiating chord changes. It's fairly straightforward when all the chords belong to the same key. In that instance one single scale will suffice but rarely does a piece of music stay in one key. Even a basic 12 bar blues uses chords belonging to 3 different keys and most jazz standards will migrate through several tonal centers. 
  
To be truly harmonically aware one must hear all the way up through a chord. 
A 7th chord comprises of a root, 3rd, 5th and a 7th but whether they're played or not the there's also the 9, 11 and 13 in there as well. This requires you to practice modes/scales in a harmonic fashion or what I term Harmonic Scales. 

Harmonic Scales

  

This is where you play up through a scale in 3rds - 1,3,5,7,9,11,13 and back to the octave again. As you're playing every other note in the scale this takes two octaves to complete and spells out the innate tonality of a given mode. I've seen these described as"super arpeggios" by Larry Carlton but I dislike the term and thus describe them as Harmonic Scales because they're exactly that: scales played in a harmonic manner, spelling out the tonality. 

  
  It would be hard to overstate the importance of getting these under the fingers and more importantly into the ears. Everything that follows in this lesson requires familiarity with them. 

Freedom through Discipline 

This exercise is just one of a group of exercises that I collectively refer to as 'The Disciplines'. Over time I will do videos for all them. Read the summary below and then watch the video. Like all of the disciplines it's very simple conceptually but can be practiced at any level of difficulty.

• Position yourself on the bottom string anywhere on the neck
• You will have 4 or 5 notes under your fingers 
• When you hear the random chord play through the harmonic scale that sounds correct starting on one of the notes that are under your fingers.
•  Play all the way back to the root passing through the 2 octaves. 
• When the next chord sounds try and find the nearest note to the one you finished on to begin the harmonic scale descending. It may be the same note of course! 
• I recommend singing the notes as you play them. 

You can either use the mp3's or better still have a friend play you random chords. 
These need to be either Major 7th, Minor 7th or Dominant 7th. 

To increase the difficulty use a metronome and do it in tempo, add altered chords or have someone fire ping pong balls at you whilst you play.

Download link: http://www.leedsguitarstudio.co.uk/randomchords.zip

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Cyclic Harmony

More often than not guitarists lag behind other instrumentalists in one major area: Harmony!
They tend to rely on shapes and often don't have any knowledge of what notes are actually in any given chord and as a result don't understand how chords relate to one another in a sequence. 

This exercise will help address this shortcoming. Done correctly you will:

• Learn all the diatonic chords in all their inversions
• Learn what notes are in each of these chords
• Recognise what the shapes tell you about the chords
• Learn common movements from chord to chord

Starting on the tonic triad (C major) in root position move the top note up step in the scale. This transform the chord from chord I to chord vi (Aminor). Then move the middle note up one scale step. The chord will then transform from chord vi to chord IV (F major). Then move the bottom note up a scale step to change chord IV to chord ii.

• Move the top note a scale step
• Move the middle note up a scale step
• Move the bottom note up a scale step
• repeat........

If this seems confusing watch the video as I explain it clearly and slowly. 
Things to note:

• Say each note of the every chord out loud as move into each new chord.
• As each note moves it becomes the root of the new chord.
• The order will always be Root, 1st inversion, 2nd inversion ad infinitum.

Here's the sheet - note that it's meant to be read down the columns from left to right. 

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