C major scale
- noun
- /siː ˈmeɪdʒər skeɪl/
:
escala de do mayor
- In his lesson, the teacher explained the C major scale and its seven notes.
Examples
-
One question scored with partial credit asked the student to identify the names of the notes in a C major scale.
Academic text (1999) -
Another music specialist may have his or her students sing various pitch patterns incorporating the first, fourth, and fifth degrees of the C major scale, ultimately enabling learners to aurally identify the chord progression of the traditional twelve-bar blues form.
Academic text (2009) -
The musician practiced the C major scale to warm up before the performance.
-
To compose a song, she started by using the C major scale as the foundation.
Synonyms
2
3.5
A major key with no sharps or flats that uses only the white keys on a piano
A set of notes from C to B with no sharps or flats
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is fully compositional: 'C' names the tonic pitch, 'major' specifies the mode/key quality, and 'scale' denotes an ordered series of notes, so a learner who knows the constituents can infer it refers to the major scale built on C (C–D–E–F–G–A–B). This naming pattern is conventional in music and across languages, so the overall meaning is directly derivable, although precise pitch content presumes basic musical knowledge.
Etymology
C major scale is named because it starts on the note C and, on a piano, uses only the white keys—the notes C D E F G A B. So it is the major scale with 'no sharps or flats', which is why beginners often learn it first.