| a scale consisting of a series of whole steps except for half steps between the third and fourth and seventh and eighth degrees. |
major scale  (click for larger image in new window) n. Music A diatonic scale having half steps between the third and fourth and the seventh and eighth degrees and whole steps between the other adjacent degrees. |
major scale
in music, stepped arrangement of notes following the classical Greek Ionian mode (though mistaken nomenclature in the 16th century has since caused it to be referred to as the Lydian mode). In a major scale the intervals between successive notes after the first are tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. Thus, the major scale of D is D-E-F-G-A-B-c-d, and the same notes descending
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