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Scales in two steps

You can bring back the steps in this approach to two:

STEP 1 Write down all the letters, starting at the ground tone;
STEP 2 Adjust the distance between the tones using sharps or flats.

Note: you will never have to use sharps and flats in the same scale!

The scale of D major

We'll look at some more examples. Let's look at the scale of D major. The ground tone is D:

The distance between the tones:

We're looking for the distances of the major scale: W-W-H-W-W-W-H. So some are incorrect:

We use sharps to correct the distances:

Concluding: the scale of D major has to sharps: F# and C#

The scale of F

Let's look at another one: the scale of F major.

The root tones starting on F:

Distances added:

We want the distances to be W-W-H-W-W-W-H. so these are wrong:

We have to correct the B. This time, the B is a semitone too high. We have to lower it. We lower it by using a flat (b):

Concluding: the scale of F major has one flat: the Bb.

Some scales have flats, some scale have sharps.

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