The keyboard diagram is another essential tool for familiarization and recognition
of major scales. The visual reinforcement of whole step and half step placement will
hasten the learning process.

The individual scale steps have specific labels. These terms have come into general
use, having their origins in early 18th-century theoryFrench composer and theorist
Jean Phillipe Rameau employs versions of these terms in his seminal work

Traité de

l’harmonie

(1728). Our current usage of these terms is adapted from this work.

Figure 3.4 "Scale-step Labels"

shows the major scale and its accompanying scale

step labels.

Scale-Step Labels

Figure 3.4

Scale-step Labels

1. The first degree of any scale is called the

Tonic

pitch. This is the pitch

that asserts itself over all the others in the collection, the pitch that
our ear naturally seeks as being the strongest.These terms will be
affiliated with chords in keys as well.

2. The next strongest pitch is the fifth scale degree, the

Dominant

. It is

considered to be the “polar opposite” of

Tonic

: whereas

Tonic

represents stability and sense of conclusion,

Dominant

represents

instability and a sense of tension.

3. The third scale degree lies halfway between these and so is labeled the

Mediant

.

4.

Dominant

is five scale-steps up from

Tonic

. Five steps below

Tonic

is the

fourth scale degree, labeled

Subdominant

.

5. Since the

Mediant

lies three steps up from

Tonic

, three steps down is

labeled

Submediant

(the sixth scale degree).

6. The second scale degree is labeled

Supertonic

.

7. Lastly, the most powerful melodic motion we respond to is the

ascending half step, from scale degree seven to the octave. Our ear is
compelled to resolve this

Leading Tone

.

Figure 3.5

Scale-steps in Order of Importance

Chapter 3 The Foundations Scale-Steps and Scales

3.2 Heptatonic Scales: The Major Scale, The Three Forms of the Minor Scale

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