Major scales - do we really need to learn them?

Major scales are mind-bogglingly important. They truly form the fundamental foundation upon which you build a new musical world.

The significance of them though can be easy to miss, especially as a beginner. Personally, I overlooked the importance of major scales for many years when I first started playing the saxophone. Although I don't regret anything about my journey, I recognise that I would've progressed much quicker if I had understood the relevance of these structures early on.

Now I'm something of an evangelist when it comes to major scales because when my clients learn their major scales in the early stages of their musical development, they can do things that I wouldn't have been able to do in the same amount of time.

Unfortunately though, major scales often seem to be associated with drudgery and pointless exercises. I suspect this is because music teachers historically have introduced major scales without attaching them to something useful and fun. Or they may have been learned to pass a test or exam, again without having any practical function other than that.

One reason they are so important is that all the melodies we love are largely built around major scales. Some of the world's most popular tunes, at least in the West, are simply major scales descending or ascending. A prime example would be the tune "Fly Me to the Moon"; it starts on the root of the major scale and descends, then it starts on the seventh note of the major scale and descends. There are countless other examples of how our favorite melodies are simply major scales or sections of major scales ascending or descending. So, if you know your major scales, it doesn't just make learning tunes slightly easier; it makes it twenty times, or fifty times easier.

They’re also invaluable if you want to improvise over a chord progression as the major scale of the key you are in provides a sequence of notes that will fit really nicely. That doesn't mean you are limited only to these notes; it just means you have at least seven notes that you know will fit and sound fantastic.

Yet another reason knowing your major scales is so vital is that if you start a major scale on one of its other notes and not the root, you get a new scale with a slightly different structure and sound. You can do this with any one of the seven notes of the major scale, so each major scale has seven derivatives or what we call “ modes". In other words, a major scale can be rearranged into seven different forms or modes, and each one has a slightly different sound, function, and use.

The root, third, fifth, and seventh of any major scale are especially important notes because when played together on piano or guitar, they form what we call a chord. This can be confusing for saxophone players since we can only play one note at a time on saxophone. During improvisation however, we focus on these chord tone notes for the purpose of great improvisation, and they will sound delicious.

One of the first things I do with new clients is to introduce them to the incredible beauty, function, and purpose of a major scale. I show them how fantastic it can sound if you simply go up and down the scale or hit the chord tones when playing these notes against a backing track. I have had clients utterly astounded as they begin to realise just how beautiful they are. They often say to me that they wished somebody had explained this to them before because until the information was presented this way, major scales had no meaning in the real world for them.
The twelve major scales are the keys to the kingdom. If you are aware of them and their structure, and you're able to play them, you may not be the finest saxophone player who ever lived, but you'll be able to navigate your way around the musical landscape and be absolutely fine.

If you don't know your major scales, moving around the musical landscape will be like a blind person walking across a building site. You'll fall into every hole and bash your head against every scaffold pipe and have a completely horrible time without understanding why this is happening to you. So, if you want to progress quickly on the saxophone, if you want to find learning tunes easy and if you'd like to be able to improvise, then learning your major scales is a surefire way to achieve all of these things.

Lynden