Building a Major Scale from a Step Pattern

Hey, I'm Melody! Here's a musical secret: every major scale — no matter where it starts — follows the exact same staircase of steps. First, let's define our two building blocks. A **half step** is the smallest distance between two notes on a piano. Play any key — the immediately adjacent key, whether black or white, is exactly one half step away. A **whole step** is simply two half steps — one key separates the two notes. Each note of the scale is called a **scale degree** — degree 1 is the starting note, degree 2 is the next, and so on up to degree 8. Now here is the magic pattern you must memorize: **W – W – H – W – W – W – H** (Whole, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Half — seven steps, eight notes.) Let's test it starting on C. From C, go up a whole step → D. Whole step → E. Half step → F (notice E and F are right next to each other with no black key between them!). Whole step → G. Whole step → A. Whole step → B. Half step → C again. You just built the C major scale: C D E F G A B C. Now try starting on G. Apply the same pattern: G (W) A (W) B (H) C (W) D (W) E (W) F# (H) G. Notice that one note had to become F-sharp to keep the pattern correct. The pattern never changes — only the note names shift. Hint: If your pattern does not match W-W-H-W-W-W-H, check that your half steps fall only at positions 3→4 and 7→8 in the sequence.