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:
“When I see that the nineteenth century has crowned the idolatry of Art with the deification of Love, so that every poet is supposed to have pierced to the holy of holies when he has announced that Love is the Supreme, or the Enough, or the All, I feel that Art was safer in the hands of the most fanatical of Cromwell’s major generals than it will be if ever it gets into mine.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
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—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“For these have governed in our lives,
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The Cross, the Crown, the Scales may all
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—Robert Frost (1874–1963)