Music, like everything else humans make up, is reflection of the basic beliefs of the culture that creates it. The music I know best is Western Music. Yet one of my favorite scales to play in is actually more of a Middle Eastern origin. So there is no reason to be limited.
Western Music comes from the Greeks and Romans, as passed through the Christian church. The Greeks and Romans had many scales and instruments that we know longer have. Most of these scales had to do with getting drunk, pissing off the troops for battle so they would hack the enemy with out mercy, or sexual conquest by both genders. When the Christian Church inherited this cultural back ground they selected essentially only one of these scales to use, the one that sounds happy and uplifting. Though there is blood in Christian history, as in everyone’s history, it was not the main point. The idea that God had appeared as a human and opened the Gates of Heaven was the main idea, and the church used music to help people feel uplifted into the Gate. Some people blame the church for purposely hiding our possibly wonderful pagan past, but really it was more a case of not having any use for the rest of the scales and using this one particular scale that made people happy. You have to admit that some blood thirsty raping and pillaging music would change the character of the Mass a bit.
The scale that came down is known now as the Major scale. I will speak about it in terms of the guitar as that is what I play, but each instrument has it’s way of playing this scale.
The way a scale is talked about is in steps, or how far apart each note is from the one before and after. There are Whole Steps is a two fret spread (the is a fret open between each note) and a Half Step (play the note right next to the one you just played). This is a reflection of the gender situations in Greek and Roman culture believe it or not. The Half Step, or Minor Step, or one fret reach, is the feminine. The Whole Step, Major Step, has a two fret reach. It is bigger, and has a stronger feel to it. You can play all whole steps and the music takes on a strong kind of pushy happy quality. With the Minor Step you get a darker, more somber and yet beautiful sound. Not sure why people think those reflect the genders, but that was the belief that was also passed into music.
To reflect the scale I will use the letter W to mean Whole or Major Step, and H to mean Half or Minor Step.
The Major Scale is W W H W W W H. Once you know your notes, you pick one to start from (say the note C) and then step of the notes from there. Because you start on the note C that is then the name of Major Scale you are playing. Start on C, you are in the key of C. Start on G you are in the key of G.
In the following pages I will explain this more and how it all works together. I do want to stress something though. There is a tendency to treat the Major Scale as if it is the standard by which all other Scales are defined. This is not true. It is a convention that only entered Western Music in the mid 1800’s as a way to standardize the teaching of music. In that context it is the standard, but in music the Major Scale is just another scale - widely used and popular, but not The Scale. I play Middle Eastern Scales that have nothing to do with the Major Scale, and they are quite lovely. Well, as I fill this site up with music theory I hope it is of use to you.