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Chord and Scale Reference Chart
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About this reference
From the music-learning collection, adapted for Philojain Music Muse. Referenced sources remain credited in the article.
Theory Made Simple · Reference
This is a lookup chart, not a lesson. Pick a key and see its signature, its seven scale notes and its relative minor; search or sort the table below, then scan the scale-formula and diatonic-chord patterns underneath — the same shapes transposed to any key you like. For the plain-language explanation of what a scale or key actually is, see What Are Scales and Keys?
01 — The Ledger
All 12 major keys, searchable.
Ordered around the circle of fifths, C at the centre. Search a key, filter by signature family, or sort any column.1
| C major | 0 | — | C D E F G A B | A minor |
| G major | 1♯ | F♯ | G A B C D E F♯ | E minor |
| D major | 2♯ | F♯ C♯ | D E F♯ G A B C♯ | B minor |
| A major | 3♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ | A B C♯ D E F♯ G♯ | F♯ minor |
| E major | 4♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ | E F♯ G♯ A B C♯ D♯ | C♯ minor |
| B major | 5♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ | B C♯ D♯ E F♯ G♯ A♯ | G♯ minor |
| F♯ major | 6♯ | F♯ C♯ G♯ D♯ A♯ E♯ | F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯ | D♯ minor |
| D♭ major | 5♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ | D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C | B♭ minor |
| A♭ major | 4♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭ | A♭ B♭ C D♭ E♭ F G | F minor |
| E♭ major | 3♭ | B♭ E♭ A♭ | E♭ F G A♭ B♭ C D | C minor |
| B♭ major | 2♭ | B♭ E♭ | B♭ C D E♭ F G A | G minor |
| F major | 1♭ | B♭ | F G A B♭ C D E | D minor |
Method: key signatures and note spellings follow the circle of fifths (order of sharps F–C–G–D–A–E–B, flats in reverse); each scale is built from its tonic using the major-scale formula in Section 02; each relative minor is the 6th degree of its major scale, sharing the identical signature.1
02 — Scale Formulas
Patterns that transpose anywhere.
Each formula is a sequence of steps from the root — identical in every key, so learning it once covers all twelve.
- Major scale
- Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half (W–W–H–W–W–W–H) from the root. The pattern is identical in every key — only the starting note changes.2
- Natural minor scale
- Whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole (W–H–W–W–H–W–W) from the root. Every major key’s relative minor (see the ledger above) uses this pattern starting on the major scale’s 6th degree.2
- Minor pentatonic scale
- Five notes: root, minor 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, minor 7th (1–♭3–4–5–♭7) — the natural minor scale with its 2nd and 6th degrees removed. One of the most-used scales in guitar-driven music.3
03 — Diatonic Chords
One pattern, every major key.
Stack every other note of a major scale (1–3–5) and the chord quality on each degree always falls the same way. Worked here in C major, because it has no sharps or flats to track — transpose to any key in the ledger above by matching scale degrees.
| Degree | Quality | In C major |
|---|---|---|
| I | Major | C major (C–E–G) |
| ii | Minor | D minor (D–F–A) |
| iii | Minor | E minor (E–G–B) |
| IV | Major | F major (F–A–C) |
| V | Major | G major (G–B–D) |
| vi | Minor | A minor (A–C–E) |
| vii° | Diminished | B diminished (B–D–F) |
Method: each triad is built by stacking the scale’s 1st, 3rd and 5th notes counting from each degree; the quality (major/minor/diminished) is computed directly from the major-scale intervals in Section 02, not quoted from a chord chart.
Deeper — One Third Higher
One layer past the triads above: the same seven degrees, stacked a third higher
Section 03’s table above stacks each major-scale degree’s 1st, 3rd and 5th into a triad and stops there. Stack one more third on top of each of those seven triads — still using only notes already inside the scale — and the pattern extends cleanly rather than starting over. Open Music Theory’s own chapter on the subject lays out exactly four resulting qualities, worked, like Section 03 above, in a way that transposes to any key: “seventh chords built on do and fa have a major triad and a major seventh” (Imaj7 and IVmaj7 in the table’s own Roman-numeral system), the fifth degree gets “a major triad and a minor seventh (a dominant seventh chord)” — V7 — “seventh chords built on re, mi, and la have a minor triad and a minor seventh” (ii7, iii7, vi7), and the seventh degree is “half-diminished — they have a diminished triad and a minor seventh,” written viiø7.
Same seven letters this page’s own ledger already lists per key, one interval taller.
Deeper — Why The Taller Table Gets Used
Why the taller version of this table is the one jazz and pop actually reach for
Section 03’s own method note above stresses that its triad qualities are “computed directly from the major-scale intervals,” not quoted from a chord chart — the seventh-chord layer above follows the identical logic, and Open Music Theory backs the same transposability claim this page already makes: these patterns “do not change in different keys,” so the C major seventh-chord run above — Cmaj7, Dm7, Em7, Fmaj7, G7, Am7, Bø7 — transposes note-for-note to any of the eleven other keys in Section 01’s ledger, exactly the way Section 03’s triads already do.
The extra third matters practically, not just theoretically: a large share of jazz and modern pop harmony is built from this seventh-chord row rather than the plainer triads above it — a ii–V–I progression, one of the most common jazz cadences, is far more often ii7–V7–Imaj7 than it is the bare triads Section 03 shows, which makes this the table most players reach for the moment a progression is meant to sound like jazz rather than a folk or rock triad strum.
04 — Common Questions
Asked while looking up a key.
What's the difference between a scale and a key?
A scale is the ordered set of notes; a key centres a piece of music on one note — the tonic — from that scale. See What Are Scales and Keys? for the fuller picture — this page is the lookup table, not the explanation.
How do I find the relative minor of a major key?
Count to the 6th note of the major scale — that note is the relative minor's tonic, and it shares the exact same key signature. The ledger above lists it for all 12 keys.
What is a diatonic chord?
A chord built entirely from the notes of one scale, stacking every other scale degree on top of each starting note. The Diatonic Chords section above shows the fixed pattern.
Why do some keys use sharps and others use flats?
By convention, each major scale uses every letter name A–G exactly once, so the spelling that keeps the letters in order is chosen — that's why, for example, D♭ major is written with flats rather than as an awkward run of sharps and double-sharps.
What's an easy first key for a beginner guitarist?
C major, G major and E minor are commonly taught first because their chord shapes use open, unfretted strings — not because of any rule. Plenty of players start elsewhere and get on fine.
05 — Sources
Where these facts come from
- Berklee Online — “Circle of Fifths: The Key to Unlocking Harmonic Understanding”online.berklee.edu · accessed 25 Jul 2026
- Open Music Theory — “Major Scales, Scale Degrees, and Key Signatures” & “Minor Scales, Scale Degrees, and Key Signatures”viva.pressbooks.pub · accessed 25 Jul 2026
- Guitar Chords .org.uk — “Minor Pentatonic Scales”guitar-chords.org.uk · accessed 25 Jul 2026
- Open Music Theory (Pressbooks), “Seventh Chords”viva.pressbooks.pub · accessed 11 Aug 2026
About this page: the 12-key ledger and scale formulas are drawn from the sources above; the diatonic-chord table is derived arithmetically from the major-scale formula, not a separate citation. Every scale spelling was independently reconstructed from the whole-step/half-step pattern and cross-checked against the circle-of-fifths sharp/flat order before publishing.
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