Ionian (Major)
This scale is also known by other names: Major, C Major.
2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1About Ionian (Major)
The B♭ major scale has two flats, B♭ and E♭, and it is the key wind instruments are built around. A trumpet playing its open note sounds B♭; a tenor saxophone reading C produces B♭. That accident of construction put an enormous share of jazz and brass music into this key — and left guitarists holding barre chords.
The notes
B♭ C D E♭ F G A, then B♭. The two flats fall on the fourth and seventh degrees counted from C, which is the standard pattern: flat keys add flats in the order B, E, A, D, G.
Neither B♭ nor E♭ is available as an open string on a guitar in standard tuning, and that single fact explains everything about how the key feels on this instrument compared with a trumpet.
On the fretboard
The scale is usually played from the sixth fret with the root on the low E string, or from the first fret with the root on the A. Neither position uses an open string, so the whole shape is movable — an advantage once the fingering is learned, a difficulty before that.
The chords are B♭, Cm, Dm, E♭, F, Gm. Four of the six are barres. A guitarist asked to play in B♭ usually reaches for a capo on the third fret and plays in G instead — same pitches, different shapes.
Where it is used
Big bands, brass sections and jazz standards live here. So does a great deal of church and school music, because school instruments are wind instruments.
Its relative minor is G minor, sharing both flats. The pair B♭ and Gm is as common in jazz as C and Am are in folk, and for the same structural reason.
Related Scales from Diatonic
Learn more with AI
Ask our AI assistant about chord progressions, practice tips, and theory for Ionian (Major)