2-1 · The Major Scale as a Reference System

Step off the guitar for a few minutes. Using a piano keyboard — where every note lives in exactly one place — this lesson shows where note names come from, builds the C major scale from the W-W-H-W-W-W-H formula (worth memorizing), and untangles scale degrees (position within a scale) from intervals (distance in semitones). You'll see how every interval name — major, minor, perfect, the tritone — falls out of the major scale, so the naming system finally makes sense instead of feeling arbitrary. It's the reference grid the rest of the course is built on.