The C Major Scale is the first scale you should learn on the guitar. It’s the starting point for all other scales and the easiest to learn. Once you learn how to find the notes of the C Major scale on your fretboard, you can easily learn scales like the G Major or F Major scale by simply changing one note.
This guide covers everything you might want to know about the C Major scale including common open chords, note positions on a fretboard diagram, and more.
These resources are based on having your guitar in standard tuning. Read this guide on Alternate Guitar Tunings if you want to try something different.
File:c Major Scale On Fretboard Of 4 Chord Bassguitar.svg
Note: the resources here are helpful, but they should only be a starting point for your practice. Once you memorize these notes on your fretboard, you won’t need to use the resources found in this guide. Find out how to memorize the notes on the fretboard here using effective methods that don’t require much time or effort.
For every Major scale in music, there is what we call a ‘relative’ minor. A ‘relative’ scale is one that uses the same notes but is used in different ways. This means for every Major scale, there is a minor scale using the same notes.
The C Major scale and the A minor scale both use the exact same notes. The main difference between the two (to keep things simple) is the root note of each scale. In the C Major scale, the root note is ‘C’. In the A minor scale, the root note is ‘A’.
The D Major Scale
Once you learn some basic music theory you will understand how two different scales can use the same notes, but for now, all you need to do is remember that both C Major and A minor scales use the same notes.
This means you can use all the diagrams, exercises and chords covered in this guide for both the C Major scale and the A minor scale.
The C Major scale is the easiest scale to remember because it doesn’t have any sharps or flats. The notes are:C D E F G A B
C Major Scale: Note Information And Scale Diagrams For Guitarists
The main reason why the C Major scale is usually the first scale to learn is that it has no sharps or flats. It makes it easier to read on sheet music and easier to find the notes on the guitar.
If you’re ever at a piano and want to noodle around, you can play the C Major scale if you only play the white keys. On a piano, the black keys are the sharps and flats.
The notes in the A minor scale are: A B C D E F G. As you can see, it’s the exact same notes as the C Major scale. The A minor scale starts on ‘A’ (called the root note) and the C Major scale starts on ‘C’, but both scales contain the same seven notes.
C Flat Major Scale On The Guitar
Pay extra attention to all the ‘C’ positions as C is the root note of the scale. If you don’t know how to use the above diagram, keep reading as we will look at some basic exercises to get you playing the C Major scale.
The C Major scale is the most important scale to learn so it’s worth spending the time to memorize the above notes.
To memorize the above notes, read through this guide on memorizing the fretboard. The guide will show you how to break the fretboard down into easy parts to memorize.
Bass Guitar Major Scales Notes
If you don’t know how to read the above example, find out how to read Standard Notation in this guide and how to read Guitar TAB in this guide. Knowing at least one of these methods can significantly speed up your progress.
Try playing the four examples to get a feel for how C Major sounds and where the correct notes are on the fretboard.
The first two examples play the exact same notes in different positions. Learning to find different positions for the same notes is a good way to get to know the fretboard. The last two examples also use the same notes as each other, only these examples are an octave higher than the first two examples.
C Major Scale (c Ionian) On The Guitar
Then use the fretboard diagram and try finding different scale positions. Play the scale runs up and down as an exercise to get you used to the positions.
There are certain chords that work with the C Major scale. This is handy to know if you want to write a song or jam in the ‘key of C’.
In music theory, we can ‘harmonize’ the scale to figure out what those chords are. To make things easy for you, here are the seven main chords of the C Major scale:
C Blues Scale Charts For Guitar And Bass 🎸
Try making up some chord progressions using the above chords and listen to how they sound when played together. A lot of songs use the above chords so you may find you accidentally play a progression from a well-known song.
Don’t worry about the last chord (Bdim) as you’re unlikely to use it. When we harmonize a Major scale, the last chord in the scale is always a diminished chord. While diminished chords are used in music, as a beginner or intermediate guitarist you may not have much use for them yet.
Note: remember that the A minor scale uses the exact same notes as the C Major scale. This means the above chords also fit in the key of A minor.
Guitar Tutorial 7
As mentioned earlier, you shouldn’t rely on these resources. Learn how to memorize the notes on the fretboard. It might be easier to use a chart like the ones above to find your way across the fretboard, but you’ll become a far better guitarist if you properly memorize the fretboard notes.
There are countless songs written on guitar using the C Major scale. The first chords you learn as a beginner on guitar (or piano) perfectly fit in the key of C, which is why so many songs were written using the C Major scale.
Don’t forget that the C Major scale and the A minor scale both use the same notes, so some of the above songs are in the key of C and others are in the key of A minor.
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Also keep in mind that while a song might be based on a scale, it doesn’t mean the song will perfectly stick to a scale the whole way through.
Once you learn the C Major scale, I recommend learning the G Major scale next. The G Major scale only changes one note, so you can learn a full new scale really quickly.
For more resources, check out these guides. You can get notifications on new resources, guides, lessons, and reviews by subscribing to email updates here.
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DISCLOSURE: articles may contain affiliate links, meaning when you click the links and make a purchase, I receive a commission. Find out more here.The C major scale is a great guitar scale for beginners to start with because many other instruments, like the piano, are played in the key of C. This will help you learn to play along with other instruments as you advance in your guitar-playing journey.
Part of what makes the C major scale great scale for beginners is that it does not contain any sharps or flats (think of playing only the white keys on a piano). This allows you to hear each note in its purest state
How To Play C Major
In this lesson, we’ll go over the notes in the C major scale and hand and finger positions. Once you’ve mastered the basics, you’ll be able to add chords using the same notes to create a harmonized C major scale. You can harmonize the C major scale (and any other scale for that matter) by adding chords that contain the notes from the scale. (We’ll get into that more below!) The first step to learning a scale is to understand which notes you will play.
Next, we’ll go over the C major scale positions so you’ll know which hand shapes and fingers to use to play each note on each string.
In order to play the C major scale, you’ll need a basic understanding of how to read guitar neck scale diagrams. In the example below, the numbered dots represent how the scale pattern appears on your guitar’s fretboard. The individual numbers correspond to each finger to show you which one to use for each note. Use this key to determine proper finger placement:
Learning All Of The C Major Notes On The Guitar
Like all scales on the guitar, the C major scale consists of different finger positions. In order to play the scale, you’ll build up finger dexterity to breeze through touching your fingers to the right frets in order to play a C major scale.
There is a different scale position for each of the notes in the C major
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