Major and Minor Scales
| Degree | Name | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Tonic | Tonal center, note of final resolution |
| 2nd | Supertonic | One step above the tonic |
| 3rd | Mediant | Midway between tonic and dominant |
| 4th | Subdominant | Lower dominant |
| 5th | Dominant | 2nd in importance to the tonic |
| 6th | Submediant | Lower mediant, halfway between tonic and subdominant |
| 7th | Leading tone | Melodically strong affinity for and leads to tonic |
| 8th | Subtonic | One whole step below tonic |
The degrees of the traditional major and minor scales may be identified several ways:
- the first, second, (major or minor) third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh degrees of the scale;
- by Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, 4 ...), sometimes with carets above them ;
- by Roman numerals (I, II, III, IV ...); and
- in English, by the names and function: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading note (leading tone in the United States) and tonic again.
- These names are derived from a scheme where the tonic note is the 'center'. Supertonic and subtonic are, respectively, one step above and one step below the tonic; mediant and submediant are each a third above and below the tonic, and dominant and subdominant are a fifth above and below the tonic.
- Subtonic is used when the interval between it and the tonic in the upper octave is a whole step; leading note when that interval is a half step.
- in English, by the "moveable Do" Solfege system, which allows a person to name each scale degree with a single syllable while singing.
Read more about this topic: Degree (music)
Famous quotes containing the words major, minor and/or scales:
“A dead martyr is just another corpse.”
—Leo V. Gordon, U.S. screenwriter, and Arthur Hiller. Major Craig (Rock Hudson)
“There are acacias, a graceful species amusingly devitalized by sentimentality, this kind drooping its leaves with the grace of a young widow bowed in controllable grief, this one obscuring them with a smooth silver as of placid tears. They please, like the minor French novelists of the eighteenth century, by suggesting a universe in which nothing cuts deep.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)
“For these have governed in our lives,
And see how men have warred.
The Cross, the Crown, the Scales may all
As well have been the Sword.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)