A Guide for Beginners - C Major Scale

by Christopher Sung The C Major Scale
The major scale is one of the most basic and well-known scales in Western music, and the C major scale is often taught first because it consists of all the white keys on a piano. The notes in a C major scale are:

C · D · E · F · G · A · B

You may be familiar with sharps and flats (i.e. F# or Bb). The C major scale is the only major scale that has no sharps or flats. The easiest way to finger it is to use open strings for some of the notes as follows:

In the example below, we play our C major scale over a repeating C major chord. Play it slowly until you get it under your fingers, and then gradually increase the tempo.