Major Scales

All major scales, you will remember, are built using this pattern of tones and semitones: T-T-S-T-T-T-S.
The first new scale in grade 3 music theory is E major. E major has four sharps - !, "!, #! and $!.
%hat do you notice about the se&uence of sharps'
(f you loo) closely you*ll disco+er that each sharp is e,actly one 5th higher than the pre+ious one.

Start at -!. and count / notes:
F, #, A, 0, C. Then start at " and count up / notes:
C, $, E, , G. Start at # and count up / notes:
G, A, 0, ", D.

This is an easy way to remember the order of sharps 1 it*s called the 2"ircle of /ths3 -because if you
)eep on going, you*ll e+entually end up bac) at the beginning4.

5ere*s the scale or E major, ascending and descending, in treble and bass clef:

The other new major scale we*re going to learn is Ab major. Ab has got four flats 1 0b , Eb, Ab, and
$b.
An easy way to remember the order of flats is to count down fi+e notes from the first one. The first flat
is 0b:
B, A, #, , E.
E, $, ", 0, A.
A, #, , E, D.
The circle of /ths wor)s in both directions 1 if you count upwards, you get the order of sharps. (f you
count downwards, you get the order of flats4

5ere is the scale of Ab major, ascending and descending in treble and bass clef:
Minor Scales
(n grade two music theory we learnt that there are two types of minor scales, the harmonic minor and
the melodic minor.
The harmonic minor has the pattern T-S-T-T-S-3S-S -3S 6 3 semitones..
The melodic minor has one pattern on the way up and another on the way down:
Ascending: T-S-T-T-T-T-S
$escending -from top.: T-T-S-T-T-S-T

At grade two, you were gi+en a free choice about which +ersion of the minor scale you wanted to write.
0ut at grade 3, you will be told which +ersion you ha+e to write, so you must learn both +ersions of
each scale.
5ere are all the new minor scales you need to )now for grade 3 music theory:

0 minor harmonic

0 minor melodic

# minor harmonic

# minor melodic

! minor harmonic

! minor melodic

" minor harmonic

" minor melodic

"! minor harmonic

"! minor melodic

minor harmonic

minor melodic