Scales › major (Ionian)

major (Ionian) scale

reference major color

7 notes

RC 9D 3E 11F 5G 13A 7B

guide tones (3rd & 7th — the heart of the sound) avoid (strong clash)

C · D · E · F · G · A · B

Play in the key of

What color?

The stable, bright major mode, with its major third and major seventh anchoring the tonal center. The eleventh rubs against the third, making it a clear, consonant color with little tension, one you return to as a home base.

Origin & history

Ionian is one of the modes of medieval plainchant, but it was only formally recognized as a mode in its own right in the 16th century, when Glarean added it to the church modes (Dodecachordon, 1547). With the rise of tonality in the 17th and 18th centuries, it became THE major scale, the foundation of Western music.

Which chords to play it on?

The jazz consensus (Aebersold) recommends it on:

major seventh chord

Sibling modes

The major (Ionian) scale is one of the modes of the major scale : it shares exactly the same notes as the modes below, but built on a different degree of the parent scale (major (Ionian)).

Dorian bright minor, major thirteenth Phrygian dark minor, Spanish b9 Lydian ♯11 brilliance Mixolydian natural dominant Aeolian (natural minor) melancholic natural minor Locrian unstable half-diminished

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →