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2) The Major Scale

A scale is a collection of notes, selected from the full set of notes in an octave. The choice of notes in the scale provides the framework on which a piece of music is built.

We have already been introduced to the Chromatic scale. It is very rarely used as the basis for a piece of music, because it excludes no notes, and so provides no structure.

The importance of the Chromatic scale is that it defines the full set of notes in music, from which all other scales are built.

There are many different types of scales, and we will look at all of them in detail later. To begin with, we are going to meet the most important scale in western music, the Major scale.