Six notes, each a whole tone from the next. Because the steps are all equal the scale has six rotations but only two distinct forms, one starting on each side of the tritone. There is no perfect fifth anywhere in the scale.
1 = Bb
2 = C
3 = D
#4 = E
#5 = F#
b7 = G#
Root
Bb (also written A#)
Scale
Whole tone
Type
symmetric
Notes
Bb C D E F# G#
Notes in the scale
6
Degree formula
1 2 3 #4 #5 b7
Semitones from the root
0 2 4 6 8 10
Step pattern
W W W W W W
Key signature of this root
Bb major / G minor · Bb Eb
Written use
Named 1 2 3 #4 #5 b7. Played over augmented chords and over dominant seventh chords that move up a half step or up a tone.
Notes and degrees
Each degree of the scale, its note name in this key, and its distance from the root in semitones.
Degree
Note
Semitones
Interval from the root
1
Bb
0
Perfect unison
tonic
2
C
2
Major second
3
D
4
Major third
#4
E
6
Tritone
#5
F#
8
Minor sixth
b7
G#
10
Minor seventh
Positions on the guitar
The five windows below are computed, not copied from a shape chart. The script locates the lowest
occurrence of Bb on each of the five upper strings within the first twelve frets and takes a
five-fret window centred on it. Because a scale repeats every twelve frets, these five windows cover
the whole neck; the same sequence returns an octave higher. The positions are numbered from the lowest
fret upwards, so position 1 is always the window nearest the nut and position 5 the window nearest the
twelfth fret.
Position 1 — frets 0–3
Root on the 5th string A2 at fret 1. 12 notes of the scale inside this window.
Read the grid as a chord diagram: the top row is the first string. Degrees appear in the
notes and degrees table above; a filled cell is a note of the scale, and the shaded cell is the tonic.