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Types of Scales in Music: Western Music Scales Commonly Used in Popular Music
Below is a list of the types of scales commonly used in Western music. Roedy Black’s Guitar and Keyboard Scales Poster, available at www.CompleteChords.com, displays guitar and keybaord scale finger positions in all keys for five of the most useful scales:
- Major scale
- Minor scale
- Major pentatonic scale
- Minor pentatonic scale
- Blues scale
Now, just for fun ...
- How many scales could you theoretically create if you started with a chromatic scale of 30 notes to the octave?
- Precisely 268,435,455 possible scales. When you die, if there is a hell, and you end up there because you’ve been bad, they will have a 30-note chromatic scale. You will have to memorize all the possible scales you could create from it. On the other hand, if you’ve been good and you go to heaven, you will meet Maurice Ravel, who will try to get you interested in learning how to compose heavenly music with the whole tone scale, which you may or may not find appealing, depending on how long eternity