B major scale

7 notes · the major 7th

The scale the rest of this page is measured against. Its seven notes harmonise into the seven chords of a major key, and the only unstable note in it is the 4th, a semitone above the 3rd of the tonic chord. Held against the tonic it grinds; passed through on the way somewhere it is the most ordinary note in the scale.

Heard in: Almost everything in western popular music, at some point in it.

Key
CC♯DE♭EFF♯GA♭AB♭B
majornatural minordorianmixolydianlydianphrygianlocrianharmonic minormelodic minorlydian dominantlydian augmentedalteredmajor pentatonicminor pentatonicblueswhole tonediminishedhalf-whole diminished

The notes of B major

The whole scale. Choose a chord below and this row will show which of these notes it uses.

B
1
C#
2
D#
3
E
4
F#
5
G#
6
A#
7
357912154, E string fret 045, E string fret 256, E string fret 467, E string fret 671, E string fret 712, E string fret 923, E string fret 1134, E string fret 1245, E string fret 1457, A string fret 171, A string fret 212, A string fret 423, A string fret 634, A string fret 745, A string fret 956, A string fret 1167, A string fret 1371, A string fret 1413, D string fret 134, D string fret 245, D string fret 456, D string fret 667, D string fret 871, D string fret 912, D string fret 1123, D string fret 1334, D string fret 1446, G string fret 167, G string fret 371, G string fret 412, G string fret 623, G string fret 834, G string fret 945, G string fret 1156, G string fret 1367, G string fret 1571, B string fret 012, B string fret 223, B string fret 434, B string fret 545, B string fret 756, B string fret 967, B string fret 1171, B string fret 1212, B string fret 1424, e string fret 045, e string fret 256, e string fret 467, e string fret 671, e string fret 712, e string fret 923, e string fret 1134, e string fret 1245, e string fret 145
15 frets in standard tuning, high E at the top. Each dot is labelled with its degree rather than its note, because that is the part that moves with you when you play the shape somewhere else. The green dot is the root of whatever is being shown — the scale, or the chord chosen out of it.

The chords in B major

Take every other note of the scale and you have a chord. Do it from each degree in turn and you have the key. Each row below is that stack, and the letters in it say what each scale note becomes in that chord — so the D# of the scale is the 3rd of one chord, the 5th of another and the root of a third. Choose a row to see it on the neck.

Each chord of B major, and which notes of the scale it takes
DegreeChord
B
1
C#
2
D#
3
E
4
F#
5
G#
6
A#
7
IR·3·5·7
ii7R·3·5·
iii·7R·3·5
IV5·7R·3·
V·5·7R·3
vi3·5·7R·
vii°·3·5·7R

Every note of the scale appears in four of these chords, and every chord shares three of its four notes with the chord a third away from it. That overlap is why one can be substituted for another.

What to play B major over

The chords on B whose every note this scale contains, biggest first. The largest of them is the one that pins the scale down: over Bmaj11 there is nothing in B major that can sound wrong.

Bmaj11Bmaj13Bmaj9B69Bsus2sus4Bmaj7Badd9B6BBsus2Bsus4B5

Modes of this scale

Same notes, different home. Which one you are in is decided by the chord underneath, not by the notes.

B natural minorB dorianB mixolydianB lydianB phrygianB locrian

The key of B major is these chords with everything a key borrows on top of them: the key explorer adds the secondary dominants, tritone substitutions and borrowed chords. Every scale on every root is on the scale index, and every chord on the chord index. Where the shapes and the theory come from is on the about page.

Midi Settings

7.5
Play Style
One pass of the pick from the lowest string up, everything left ringing.
Instrument
350
150

Style

Shows each chord the way this style would voice it, and marks which of its alternatives belong to the idiom.

Layout

Left Handed Mode