Major Scale Degree Names by Key

Scale degrees: tonic, dominant and the seven names

Western theory gives each note of the diatonic scale a number from 1 to 7 and a Latin-derived name that describes its relationship to the tonic. The full set is 1 — Tonic, 2 — Supertonic, 3 — Mediant, 4 — Subdominant, 5 — Dominant, 6 — Submediant, 7 — Leading Tone and back to 8 (1) — Tonic. The tonic is the tonal centre, the note that feels like home. The dominant is the second most important pitch, a perfect fifth above the tonic and the source of the strongest pull to resolution. The subdominant sits a perfect fifth below the tonic — that mirror relationship explains its name ("below the dominant"), not "below the dominant in number".

In C major the seven degrees are C — D — E — F — G — A — B, with half steps between 3-4 (E-F) and 7-8 (B-C). The 7th, B, sits a half step under the tonic and pulls strongly upward to C — hence the name leading tone. The natural minor scale (A minor: A — B — C — D — E — F — G) shows the spelling 1 — 2 — b3 — 4 — 5 — b6 — b7: there is no leading tone, only a whole step from G to A, so theorists call the 7th degree a subtonic. To recover the leading tone, classical writers raise the 7th, producing harmonic minor (1 — 2 — b3 — 4 — 5 — b6 — 7) — that augmented-second between b6 and 7 is the recognisable "exotic" sound. Melodic minor raises both the 6th and 7th when ascending and reverts to natural minor when descending.

Function: each degree has a tendency

Scale degrees are not equal. The tonic is stable. The dominant (5) wants to resolve to the tonic — that pull is the engine of a perfect cadence V-I. The leading tone (7) resolves up to the tonic by half step. The subdominant (4) tends to fall to 3 or move to 5, producing plagal cadences IV-I (the "amen" cadence). The mediant (3) and submediant (6) are weaker but colour the tonic family — the submediant is the root of the relative minor and is often used in deceptive cadences V-vi where the ear expects V-I. The supertonic (2) is the standard predominant in jazz: every ii-V-I exploits it.

Solfege names: do, re, mi and the Guidonian heritage

The syllables Do — Re — Mi — Fa — Sol — La — Ti come from Guido d'Arezzo, the 11th-century Benedictine monk who built them out of the opening syllables of a Latin hymn to Saint John. Two singing traditions survive. Fixed-do — used in France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and most of Latin America — pegs Do to the note C: Do is always C, no matter the key. Movable-do — standard in the UK, USA and Germany — pegs Do to the tonic of the current key, so Do shifts every time you modulate. The Sound of Music popularised movable-do internationally ("Doe, a deer..."). Movable-do trains relative pitch; fixed-do trains absolute pitch and chromatic literacy.

Modal mixture and borrowed degrees

Once you know the seven major-mode degrees, you can borrow from the parallel minor for colour: bIII, bVI, bVII imported into a major key produce the rock and pop sound of "modal mixture". The bVII-IV-I cadence ("Mixolydian cadence") is a Beatles trademark; the bVI-bVII-I climb appears in countless film scores. In Brazil, Tom Jobim mined unusual degree resolutions throughout the bossa-nova catalogue. Functional harmony, codified by Hugo Riemann at the end of the 19th century, classifies every chord by which tendency it serves — tonic, subdominant or dominant — and is still the bedrock of every conservatory curriculum.

FAQ

Is solfege universal? No. Fixed-do and movable-do disagree on what "Do" means, and English-speaking choirs use "Ti" while the original Italian system uses "Si". Letter names (A-G) are universal; solfege syllables are a local pedagogy.

What is the difference between the 7th in major and minor? Major has a leading tone — a half step below the tonic that pulls strongly upward. Natural minor has a subtonic — a whole step below the tonic that does not pull. To get the leading tone in minor, you raise the 7th (harmonic or melodic minor).

Do degrees still work with non-Western music? Partially. Functional harmony presumes a 12-tone equal-tempered system with a clear tonic. Indian raga, Persian dastgah and Arabic maqam systems organise pitches by other principles (microtones, characteristic motives). You can transcribe many such musics on a 7-degree map, but the "function" labels do not carry over cleanly.

Why is the 4th called "sub-dominant"? Not because it is just below the dominant in number, but because it is a perfect fifth below the tonic — a mirror of the dominant, which is a perfect fifth above. That fifth-up / fifth-down symmetry is the basis of all functional harmony.