Ionian (Major)
This scale is also known by other names: Major, C Major.
2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1About Ionian (Major)
The D major scale has two sharps, F♯ and C♯, and it is the scale the guitar resonates with most. Two of the six open strings are D and A — the tonic and the fifth — so the instrument hums along with the key before a single note is fretted.
The notes
D E F♯ G A B C♯, then D. Both sharps sit on the strings the hand uses most, and neither requires an awkward stretch in first position.
Drop the low E string to D — the tuning known as drop D — and the guitar has three D strings ringing across its range. That tuning exists because of this scale, not the other way round.
On the fretboard
In open position the scale runs from the open D string up to the second fret of the high E, using open strings at four points along the way. It is one of the few major scales that sounds full played slowly, without any technique at all.
The chords — D, Em, F♯m, G, A, Bm — contain two that need a barre, and both have common open substitutes. Compare with B♭ major, where four of six are barres.
Where it is used
Fiddle music, bluegrass and Irish traditional tunes sit in D more than in any other key, because the same logic applies to the violin: its open strings are G, D, A and E, four of the seven notes here.
Its relative minor is B minor, which shares all seven notes and only shifts the sense of home. Songs that move between D and Bm are not changing key at all — they are changing which note the ear treats as the centre.
Related Scales from Diatonic
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