D major: scale and chords

The D major scale: notes, steps, key signature

D E F♯ G A B C♯

The notes of the D major scale (the scale of D major) are D, E, F♯, G, A, B and C♯, then D again. Two are sharp, so the key of D major has a key signature of two sharps, F♯ and C♯, and no flats. On a piano that is five white keys and two black ones.

Whole and half steps: W W H W W W H. The half steps sit between F♯ and G and between C♯ and D, which is why C♯, the leading tone, pulls so hard up to D.

D major pentatonic: D E F♯ A B, the scale without G and C♯, so without its two half steps. There is no half step between any two of its notes, so it seldom rubs against the chords of the key, which makes it the safe set for a first solo or a hummed line over the loop. B minor pentatonic is the same five notes.

Scale degrees: D tonic (1), E supertonic (2), F♯ mediant (3), G subdominant (4), A dominant (5), B submediant (6), C♯ leading tone (7).

On the staff: in the treble clef F♯ sits on the top line and C♯ in the third space; in the bass clef F♯ is on the fourth line and C♯ in the second space. Sharps always arrive in the order F C G D A E B. The last one, here C♯, is a half step below the keynote: that is how you read D major off a key signature.

D major scale on piano: fingering

1 is the thumb, 5 the little finger, going up. The right thumb passes under after F♯ to play G; the left hand's third finger crosses over the thumb onto B. Over two octaves the right hand plays 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5, the left 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1. It is C major's fingering, with F♯ and C♯ as the only black keys. Some charts print the left hand's B C♯ D as 3 4 5. That is wrong: after the third finger crosses over onto B, the hand moves toward the thumb, so C♯ takes 2 and D takes 1. Practice hands apart on a metronome: quarter notes at 60 BPM, faster step by step toward 120, then eighth notes from 60 again, then hands together.

D major scale on guitar

Open position: the open D string, then frets 2 and 4 (D E F♯); the open G string, frets 2 and 4 (G A B); the B string at frets 2 and 3 (C♯ D). It carries on up the high E string: open E, F♯ at 2, G at 3, A at 5.

A movable shape from the 5th fret: A string frets 5 and 7 (D E), D string 4, 5 and 7 (F♯ G A), G string 4, 6 and 7 (B C♯ D). Slide it up or down and it plays the major scale of whatever note is under your second finger on the A string.

D major scale on violin

One of the first scales violinists learn, because it needs no shift and two of its notes are open strings: open D, then 1, high 2, 3 (E F♯ G); open A, then 1, high 2, 3 (B C♯ D). The second finger sits close to the third both times, a half step below it.

In Hz, from the keynote in octave 4: D4 293.7 · E4 329.6 · F♯4 370.0 · G4 392.0 · A4 440.0 · B4 493.9 · C♯5 554.4

Play the scale

D major scale on guitar · D major pentatonic scale · D major scale on piano

The D major chord on guitar, piano and ukulele

D F♯ A

The D major chord is D, F♯ and A: the root, a major third (4 semitones) above it and the perfect fifth (7 semitones). It is written D, sometimes Dmaj or DM. In the key it is the I chord, the one a song in D comes home to. The same chord is the V of G major and the IV of A major, which is why it turns up in songs in G and A too.

Guitar, open: x x 0 2 3 2 (low E to high E, x = not played). Index finger on the G string at the 2nd fret, middle finger on the high E at the 2nd, ring finger on the B string at the 3rd. Strum from the open D string down; the low E and A stay silent.

Guitar, barre: x 5 7 7 7 5 (the A shape at the 5th fret) or 10 12 12 11 10 10 (the E shape at the 10th). Relatives of the open shape: D/F♯ 2 x 0 2 3 2 with the thumb on the F♯, Dsus2 x x 0 2 3 0 and Dsus4 x x 0 2 3 3. Rocking between D, Dsus4 and Dsus2 is a standard acoustic figure.

Piano: D (white), F♯ (black) and A (white). Right hand 1 3 5 (thumb, middle, little finger), left hand 5 3 1. The inversions are F♯ A D (right hand 1 2 5) and A D F♯ (1 3 5): the same chord with a different note on top.

Ukulele: 2 2 2 0 (G C E A): the G, C and E strings at the 2nd fret, three fingers side by side or one finger across, the A string open.

Play D

The chords in D major: triads and sevenths

Tap a chord to hear it.

The seven triads of D major: major on I, IV and V (D, G, A), minor on ii, iii and vi (Em, F♯m, Bm), diminished on vii (C♯°). The V7, A7, leads back to D: its C♯ rises to D and its G falls to F♯.

Chord progressions in D major

• I–IV–V, D G A: folk, country and three-chord rock. As sevenths, D7 G7 A7, it is the 12-bar blues in D.
• I–V–vi–IV, D A Bm G: the pop progression, and the one the loop above plays.
• vi–IV–I–V, Bm G D A: the same four chords started on Bm, so it leans minor.
• I–vi–IV–V, D Bm G A: the 1950s doo-wop turn.
• ii–V–I, Em7 A7 Dmaj7: the jazz cadence.
• I–♭VII–IV, D C G: C is not in D major, it is borrowed from D Mixolydian; it is the riff of "Sweet Home Alabama".

Pachelbel's Canon in D major: the chords

Pachelbel's Canon in D major (in full, Canon and Gigue in D, P. 37), the wedding processional that many brides walk in to, is one two-bar loop of eight chords under the whole piece: D A Bm F♯m G D G A (I V vi iii IV I IV V). On piano the left hand plays the bass line D A B F♯ G D G A, one note per chord, and the right hand the chords above it. Pachelbel wrote it for three violins and continuo; the year is not known, only that he died in 1706.

Notes from outside the key

A song in D major still borrows. F natural over a D chord is the minor third, the blue note of D. C natural gives the D C G above. B♭ comes from D minor and turns G into Gm, the minor iv, a soft sad step before the last chord: D G Gm D.

Keys that mix with D major

On the Camelot wheel D major is 10B (Open Key 3d). Tracks in these keys mix without a clash:

• 10A B minor relative minor, the same seven notes
• 9B G major one step down
• 11B A major one step up
• 12B E major two steps up, the energy boost

To write in D major, set your DAW's key or scale to D major, or to B minor, which is the same seven notes, and the piano roll marks them.

D major vs D minor, and the relative minor

Relative minor: B minor. The same seven notes and the same two sharps, started on B, a minor third below D. A song can move between D and Bm without changing a note, which is why D major songs so often visit Bm. B harmonic minor raises A to A♯, and that is where the F♯ major chord in many D major songs comes from: it is the V of Bm, leading into it.

Parallel minor: D minor (7A). The same keynote with three notes changed: D E F G A B♭ C, one flat. The chords differ by one note, the third: D major is D F♯ A, D minor D F A. D minor's own relative major is F major.

Where D major sits on instruments and voices

All six open strings of a guitar are in the key, and drop D tuning (D A D G B E) puts a low D under everything. All four of a violin's (G D A E) are too, so they ring along: a large part of why so much string music is in D.

Choir parts (soprano C4–G5, alto G3–D5, tenor C3–G4, bass F2–D4, where two part-writing guides agree): D4–D5 fits the soprano and alto parts; D3–D4 fits the tenor and bass parts. Find your own range.

As a sub or an 808, the keynote is D1 at 36.7 Hz (MIDI note 26; Ableton and Logic call it D0, FL Studio D2), or D2 at 73.4 Hz an octave up. Tune an 808 to D.

What plays

Drums, an organ bass and a pluck, the Brumm app's own sounds, four bars at 123 BPM, one chord per bar. The arrows move bass and chords a semitone; the drums stay.

Songs and pieces in D major

• Pachelbel, Canon in D.
• Handel, the "Hallelujah" chorus from Messiah (1741), with trumpets in D.
• Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 5.
• Mozart, the "Haffner" Symphony, No. 35 (1782), and the Violin Concerto No. 4, K. 218.
• Beethoven, Symphony No. 2; and the "Ode to Joy" tune in the finale of the Ninth, which is first heard in D major.
• Haydn, Cello Concerto No. 2, Hob. VIIb:2.
• The three great violin concertos in D: Beethoven's, Op. 61 (1806), Brahms's, Op. 77 (1878), and Tchaikovsky's, Op. 35 (1878).
• Pop: Ed Sheeran, "Thinking Out Loud"; Plain White T's, "Hey There Delilah".

Often listed as D major and not: the Beatles' "Here Comes the Sun" sounds in A major. George Harrison played D shapes with a capo at the 7th fret.

To find the key of something you hum, use the singing key finder; to move a song into D, transpose it.

What D major is known for

Brightness, and the reason is mostly mechanical. A violin's open strings are all in the key and baroque trumpets were mostly pitched in D, so in the baroque and classical eras D major was the key of festive orchestral music. Christian Schubart, writing around 1784, called it the key "of triumph, of Hallelujahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing" (Ideen zu einer Ästhetik der Tonkunst, published 1806; Rita Steblin's translation, A History of Key Characteristics, 1983).

In equal temperament, the tuning of every piano and DAW today, all major keys are the same pattern of intervals. D major is not happier than D♭ major a semitone below; what changes is the register and which strings ring open. In Schubart's day keyboards were tuned unequally, so keys did differ a little.

D♯ major, D♭ major and how many flats

• How many flats in D major? None. Two sharps, F♯ and C♯.
• D♭ major (D flat major) is another key, a semitone lower: five flats, D♭ E♭ F G♭ A♭ B♭ C. Its enharmonic equivalent is C♯ major, with seven sharps: the same keys on a piano, spelled differently.
• D♯ major (D sharp major) exists only on paper: D♯ E♯ F𝄪 G♯ A♯ B♯ C𝄪, nine sharps counting the two double sharps. Music that sounds there is written in E♭ major, three flats.
• On the circle of fifths D sits between G major (one sharp) and A major (three sharps).

The forbidden key and the hardest key

There is no forbidden key. The phrase usually means the tritone, diabolus in musica, three whole steps that older counterpoint treated as a fault. D major has one, G to C♯: the two notes of A7 that resolve inward to F♯ and D.

The hardest major scale depends on the instrument. On piano many teachers find C major the hardest to play evenly, because the hand has no black keys to settle on; Chopin started his pupils on B major (Eigeldinger, Chopin: Pianist and Teacher, 1986). To read, the hardest are the keys with seven sharps or flats, C♯ major and C♭ major. With two sharps, D major is usually among the first three or four scales anyone learns.

Then hum over it

The hum button opens Brumm with a short line in the key over a beat. Hum yours and it becomes an instrument. No account, no upload.

Sources

Scales and chords: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Camelot, Open Key: Mixed In Key, Mixgraph. Open strings: Wikipedia. Choir parts: Open Music Theory, Geneseo. Guitar shapes: Wikipedia, Barre chord. Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

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