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The Major Scale is one of five widely used scales in Western music. It is a music form borrowed and filtered from the Romans, and originally used by the Christian Church for it’s services for uplifting music, as it has an uplifting feeling. The easiest way to see this scale is in the Major Key of C. This key is called C because it’s first note is C. The scale looks like this -

The dark large notes are the notes of the scale, the smaller gray ones are not. On a piano these would be the white keys, with the gray ones being the black keys. On a guitar the Whole Steps would mean two frets to the next note, a Half Step would be the next fret after the one you just played.

This scale when started at C has no sharps (symbolized with a “#” - a pitch higher - c# means the note C but one fret higher) nor are there any flats (symbolized with a “b” a one fret lower than the named note). All of the notes are “natural” or fall on the fret that matches the note with out it being sharp or flat. When we start working on where the notes are on the fret board this will tell you which of the notes to play when you are in a particular key. When you are in the key of C, you start at C and count up whole whole half whole whole whole half and the result is all the notes are natural. Thus when you play in the key of C you only play the natural notes.

As for why the key of C is the one with all natural notes - well remember this is a tool used by the Church for it’s services. C is the first letter of Christ, C is the middle note on the Organ keyboard with Christ being the center of the keyboard, and all the notes are natural, as they should be without being altered, part of the natural order of Christ. This doesn’t mean all other scales were forbidden, just symbolically C matched Christ, so they made that scale the one that is all natural.

Now lets say you were to start on the note G. As G is the first note, you would be playing in the Major

C  c#  D d#  E  F f#  G  g#  A  a#  B  C

Half Step
1 Fret

Half Step
1 Fret

Half Step
1 Fret

Half Step
1 Fret

Notice you have the same sharps as in the Key of C. C#, d#, f#, g#, a#. These sharp notes are always the same between each natural note. But notice that F# is bolder while the f natural is grayed out. This is because when you count up from the note G WWHWWWH you land on F# instead of f. So when you play in the Key of G, every time you see to play the note f, you play F# instead, one fret higher.

Now lets look at the Key of D. Start on the note D, count up WWHWWWH

Half Step
1 Fret

Half Step
1 Fret

Again the same pattern of notes, but now you play F# instead of f, and C# instead of c. You can do this with any note, which is the name of the key, count up WWHWWWH and get the notes altered. Then when you are to play in that key, play the sharp or flats called for in the key.