Degree (music) - Major and Minor Scales

Major and Minor Scales

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.