
In
music theory
Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...
, the harmonic major scale is a
musical scale
In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency.
The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...
found in some music from the
common practice era and now used occasionally, most often in
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
. It corresponds to the Raga
Sarasangi
Sarasangi (pronounced sarasāngi) is a ragam in Carnatic music
Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Ka ...
in Indian
Carnatic music
Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha.
It is o ...
, or Raag
Nat Bhairav in Hindustani music.
It can be considered a
major scale
The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at doubl ...
with the sixth
degree lowered,
Ionian 6, or the
harmonic minor scale
The harmonic minor scale (or Aeolian ♮7 scale) is a Scale (music), musical scale derived from the natural minor scale, with the minor seventh degree raised by one semitone to a major seventh, creating an augmented second between the sixth and ...
with the third degree raised.
The
intervals between the notes of a harmonic major scale follow the sequence below:
: whole, whole, half, whole, half, augmented second, half
The harmonic major scale may be used to construct the following chords, which also may be thought of as
borrowed from the parallel minor: the
dominant minor ninth chord, the fully
diminished seventh
In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh () is an interval (music), interval produced by Diminution, narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone,Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.54. ...
leading tone
In music theory, a leading tone (also called subsemitone or leading note in the UK) is a musical note, note or pitch (music), pitch which resolution (music), resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper lea ...
chord, the
supertonic
In music, the supertonic is the second degree () of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as ''re''.
The triad built on the supertonic note is called the supertonic ...
diminished triad
In music theory, a diminished triad is a triad (music), triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root (chord), root. It is a Minor chord, minor triad with a lowered (flat (music), flattened) Fifth (chord), fifth. When using Chord names and ...
, the supertonic
half-diminished seventh chord
In music theory, the half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a half-diminished chord or a minor seventh flat five chord) is a seventh chord composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a tritone, diminished fifth, and ...
, and the minor
subdominant
In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...
. It also contains an
augmented triad
An augmented triad is a chord, made up of two major thirds (an augmented fifth). The term ''augmented triad'' arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised. When using popular-music symbols, i ...
.
The harmonic major scale has its own set of
modes
Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine
* ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...
, distinct from the harmonic minor, melodic minor, and major modes, depending on which note serves as the
tonic. Below are the mode names, their degrees, and the following seventh chords that can be built using each modal tonic or degree of the parent mode as the root: a
major seventh chord
In music, a major seventh chord is a seventh chord in which the third is a major third above the root and the seventh is a major seventh above the root. The major seventh chord, sometimes also called a ''Delta chord'', can be written as maj7, M7 ...
, a
half-diminished seventh chord
In music theory, the half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a half-diminished chord or a minor seventh flat five chord) is a seventh chord composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a tritone, diminished fifth, and ...
, a
minor seventh chord
In music, a minor seventh chord is a seventh chord composed of a root note, a minor third, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). In other words, one could think of it as a minor triad with a minor seventh attached to ...
, a
minor major seventh chord
A minor major seventh chord, or minor/major seventh chord (also known as the Hitchcock Chord) is a seventh chord composed of a root, minor third, perfect fifth, and major seventh (1, 3, 5, and 7). It can be viewed as a minor triad with an addit ...
, a
dominant seventh chord
Domination or dominant may refer to:
Society
* World domination, structure where one dominant power governs the planet
* Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition
* Ch ...
, an
augmented major seventh chord
In music, an augmented major seventh chord or major seventh sharp five chord is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, augmented fifth, and major seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). It can be viewed as an augmented triad with an additional major seven ...
, and a
diminished seventh chord
The diminished seventh chord is a four-note chord (a seventh chord) composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a diminished seventh above the root: (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the dim ...
. Harmonic minor contains the same types of seventh chords, but in a different order.

For example, a C major scale consists of the
notes
Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to:
Music and entertainment
* Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music
* ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian
* ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
: C D E F G A B; whereas a C harmonic major scale consists of the notes: C D E F G A B. Notice the sixth note in the sequence is lowered, from A to A. The C harmonic major scale can also be obtained from the C harmonic minor scale, which is C D E F G A B, by raising the E to E. The C harmonic major scale may be derived from the F melodic minor scale with a raised fourth: F G A B C D E.

The harmonic major scale may also be considered a
synthetic scale
In music, a synthetic scale is a scale that derives from a traditional diatonic major scale by altering of one degree by a semitone in either direction."Synthetic Musical Scales". Author(s): J. Murray Barbour. Source: ''The American Mathematic ...
, primarily used for implying and relating to various
altered chord
An altered chord is a chord that replaces one or more notes from the diatonic scale with a neighboring pitch from the chromatic scale. By the broadest definition, any chord with a non-diatonic chord tone is an altered chord. The simplest examp ...
s, with major and minor qualities in each
tetrachord
In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...
. Thus the musical effect of the harmonic major scale is a sound intermediate between harmonic minor and diatonic major, and partaking of both. The harmonic major scale may be used in any system of
meantone tuning, such as
19 equal temperament
In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO ("Equal Division of the Octave"), 19-ED2 ("Equal Division of 2:1) or 19 Equal temperament, ET, is the musical temperament, tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps ...
or
31 equal temperament
In music, 31 equal temperament, which can also be abbreviated (31 tone ) or (equal division of the octave), also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equally-proportioned steps (e ...
, as well as
12 equal temperament
12 equal temperament (12-ET) is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are Equal temperament, equally tempered (equally spaced) on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the Twelfth root of two, 12th root of 2 ...
.
One interesting property of this scale is that for any diatonic scale, there is a
relative major
In music, 'relative keys' are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of m ...
or minor mode, and if each of these is made harmonic major or harmonic minor, the
accidental required in each "harmonic" scale is actually the same note spelled
enharmonic
In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that ar ...
ally. For example, the added accidental in C harmonic major, A (shown in first image), is enharmonically equivalent to the added accidental, G, in the relative harmonic minor of C major, A harmonic minor. Also, another enharmonic mode of the scale is the Jazz Minor b5 scale (Jeths's mode) (B in C Harmonic Major, Cb in F Jazz Minor b5).

Like the familiar major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales, the harmonic major scale has the
diatonic thirds property, which means that the interval between notes two steps apart (e.g. the fifth and seventh notes) are separated by a major or minor third, i.e. the interval of three or four semitones.
[Dmitri Tymoczko (2004). "Scale Networks and Debussy." Journal of Music Theory 48.2: 215-292.] There are only seven such scales in equal temperament, including whole tone, hexatonic from alternating minor thirds and semitones, diatonic, ascending melodic minor, harmonic minor, harmonic major, and octatonic (diminished). This property implies that chords formed by taking every other note from some consecutive subset of the scale are triadic, raising the possibility of using
tertian harmony together with melodic material from such a scale.
The harmonic major scale is also one of the five
proper seven-note scales of
equal temperament
An equal temperament is a musical temperament or Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning system that approximates Just intonation, just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequency, frequencie ...
. Like five of those other six scales, it is a complete circle of thirds; starting from the tonic the pattern is MmmmMMm, where M is a major third and m is a minor third.
Harmonic major is not commonly taught as a tonality, so chords borrowed from this diatonic tonality are not recognized as readily as those from the tonalities of major, harmonic minor, and melodic minor.
Many popular songs have borrowed chords from the tonality of harmonic major but have not been recognized as doing so. Examples are '
After You've Gone', '
Blackbird', '
Sleep Walk
"Sleep Walk" is an instrumental song written, recorded, and released in 1959 by American instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny Farina, with their uncle Mike Dee playing the drums.
Prominently featuring steel guitar, the song was record ...
', '
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
"Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a 1930 song with music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was first recorded in February 1931 by Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, soon followed by Wayne King and His Orchestra with voc ...
'.
References
Further reading
* Peter Burt, ''The Music of Toru Takemitsu'', Cambridge University Press, 2001, .
* Hewitt, Michael. 2013. ''Musical Scales of the World''. The Note Tree. .
* Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, ''Practical Manual of Harmony'', Carl Fischer, LLC, 2005,
* Nicolas Slonimsky, ''Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns'', Music Sales America; First Edition, 1947,
* Yamaguchi, Masaya. 2006. ''The Complete Thesaurus of Musical Scales'', revised edition. New York: Masaya Music Services. .
* Bret Willmott, ''Mel Bay's Complete Book of Harmony Theory and Voicing'', Mel Bay Publications, 1994,
* "Dan Haerle: The Jazz Language" Studio P/R, Miami, Florida, USA 1980; "Jazz Improvisation und Pentatonic" advance music, Rottenberg/N 1987. Featuring "logical delibaration" for "harmonic major chord-scale system" cited in Haunschild (2000).
* "Harmonic Major : Part I — Arranging Blackbird" Canadian Musician Magazine, July/August 2015 issue, page 27, by Adam Coulombe.
External links
The Tonal Center pageThe Harmonic Major Mode in Nineteenth-Century Theory and PracticeHarmonic Major Scales and its ModesHarmonic Major Scale - Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harmonic Major Scale
Heptatonic scales
Hemitonic scales
Tritonic scales
Musical scales with augmented seconds