...music (any and all genres) using major scales? Most of what I listen to and have listened to all my life is composed of minor scales, therefore I am not very good with using major scales in my music. If I could find some good stuff to jam along to, it would be a huge help to me.

Thanks.

powermetal? :P

most of what's on popular charts these days is in a major.
most 'modern' punk is major, too. Not that oldschool 70's stuff, but anything from the early nineties usually is.

folk music, that includes folk metal, is usualy major, but uses weird modes.
more major metal..err..older heavy metal bands?

well..uhm..check out flogging molly, finntroll, judas priest and man-o-war.

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and listen stuff from the doors, blues brothers, led zeppelin, jimi hendrix, stevie ray, etcetcetc. They use minor/major/pentatonic and whatnot combined, so that'll offer you some cool possibilities

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I can suggest using the right forum!

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all good suggestions, though I'd say The Doors's more well know songs are very minor.

What about Queen? Guns 'n Roses?

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I did think about that until I looked at the amount of people using each forum. I didn't want to wait until July for a reply.

Guns n Roses is good. Slash uses the major pentatonic all the time. The Allman Bros Band use the major pentatonic in like 90% of their music as well. Joe Satch uses variations of the major modes all the time as well.

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Just about anything from Bodom is major scale.

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To be honest the majority of music out there is written in major scales. Much more than the minor.

This is probably the broadest question ever.

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I figured, but I don't like popular music, so I really didn't know where to begin.

Find some 'hit charts' from the late 80's to early 90's.
Download some of the songs on there.
That way, at least its probably guitar music.

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Look at most jam music... Grateful Dead, Phish, Moe, etc.

Pretty much anything that sounds 'happy' is more than likely major scale.

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Aikaryu
High and Mighty Color
NoGod

Tons of Japanese bands.

I'd rather shoot myself in the foot than listen to some of those Japanese bands.

Tm is right, this thread is fucking stupid. At least 75% of music ever created is based from the major scale. Turn on the radio.

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It really is.

Like almost all Classical, Jazz music loosely, pop, rock, punk, some metal.

Its pretty much safe to assume that in some way or another almost all types of music in one way or another has the "major scale."

But again this is dumb because i think the person really means.. Major KEY, rather than scale. If we say major scale its pretty safe to say almost every single song (including EVERY type of metal) has a major scale in it...

Now written in a major key is another story, but still MOST music is in a Major Key.

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I wanted to grate about that too, but I figured the OP meant Major key..
The first thing I thought when he said he didn't listen to anything in the Major scale, I was like..
Does he listen to experimental eastern whatever music or something?

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There is no such thing as a minor key, but most stuff have major parts or progressions somewhere.

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Are you high? Every key has a relative minor.

The Key of C Major is = to A minor. This is the way it is in every minor classical piece or minor Jazz song.
There is a reason why the circle of 5ths contains 2 sets of names for each set of Sharps or flats.

Circle of 5ths
As well as every notation producing software including the relative minors. (finale, guitar pro and so on)

If you say there are no minor keys you might as well say there are no major keys as well, but if one goes ahead and says that then there is no point in calling the keys anything other than 1 sharp, 2 flats and so on.

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This is why asking questions on an internet forum is never a good idea, lol.

The fact of the matter is that I am planning on writing a tune for my fiance for our wedding, but since I play minor, everything sounds depressing, lol, as does pretty much everything I listen to.

As I said before, I don't like the radio, all the crap sounds the same to me. So why would I want to listen to it and break down tunes that I don't like in the first place when I'm not even sure which keys they are in until I mess with them. Big waste of time. All I wanted were some good examples of tunes in Major key or scale or whatnot (my musical ignorance shows as I've never learned theory; just scales and such).

I am personally sorry to you for creating such a stupid thread and I bow to your extreme musical superiority.

thanks dude!


Well, basically anything that sounds 'happy' is major. If you're writing it, then I don't see the problem anyway if you already know the major scale, but hey whatever you say.

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You asked a question that was extremely basic, no use in getting bent out of shape over it. Play the major scale look up common chord progressions, play around with them and you'll be fine.

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Yes.



That's exactly what I'm saying. You have to derive what your relative minor is based off the key. I mean, it's easy to do, but musical notation doesn't have any syntax for specifying a minor key, it's all relative to major.

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It's true. Say you're playing out of E minor, formally you would say it's in the key of G, but if i'm jamming with my friends and i ask what key, i'd rather them tell me E minor. So yeah, technically everything is in a major key because really the minor scale is just the aoelian mode, but.. whatever, you know what i'm saying.

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No thats not quite what i'm saying, or what i think davie is saying. Close but not quite, i see and agree with your point up to when you call it "technically a major key."

There is no such thing as a major or minor key if you accept that there are no minor keys. There is just as much a MINOR key as there is a MAJOR key.

You accept there are certain keys based on the number of sharps or flats and keep it at that. If you say 1 sharp is "G major" its the same as saying "E minor", there is no difference and E minor doesn't have a relationship to 1 sharp through G major, it just is what it is.

Its just easier to remember by attaching a name to a key by giving its Ionian mode root name. The same goes for the Aeolian root.

Or, you accept there is something called "The key of C major" or "The key of C minor" and leave it at that.

Either or it doesn't matter, its purely up for debate that i feel doesn't have any real purpose.

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Yeah, good point. Basically I think we're trying to say the same thing, but i just had a bad choice of words really. If there's no minor keys, then there can't be any major keys. There's just keys. Really i guess if you specify that you're playing in minor, then youre just stating that you're playing in the aeolian mode, but that's just an assumption that you're referring to natural minor, as there are other minor modes. does that make sense? i'm sorry, i'm just rambling now. Anyway, Let's just agree that there are no major/minor key, but just keys.

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Yes, you're dead on.

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I should have gone to school for music instead of accounting..... *sigh*

I never used Major Scales either until I bought a guitar theory lesson course from Desi Serna. One of the things in his course is major scales. He gives a lot of examples with tab and little videos. Here is his youtube link but the major scale material is not up there yet. I think he intends to add it. http://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarMusicTheoryTab

I bought his book and dvd's and it really helped me with theory as it applies to the guitar. Especially the modes. All modes are just major scales. Learn the major scale patterns up and down the fretboard and you know all the modes. Of course then you need to learn where and how to apply. I suggest you get all of Desi's free stuff that he has and also listen to to pod casts and see what you think. It helped me a lot. Here are some major scale examples from songs I can think of...

Down On The Corner - CCR
Crazy Train - Ozzie
Wild World - Cat Stevens
La Bamba - Los Lobos and a million more.

But like I said, Desi offers a ton of free stuff. Check it out and see what you think. I really liked the pod casts. He does have a free pod cast on major scales.

Hello Musician 1978

Major or minor modes are not a big deal. What is important is the contrast you may create between major and minor mode within a same piece. This contrast is essential to any musical composition in order to make a piece fresh and interesting.
However, you can find here all scales and modes used in composition.
http://www.musiclassroom.com/cours/...e_1.php?lang=en

If any question, please leave me a message on this forum.

Yves

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listen to happy music

Contribute something useful or you're gone.

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