The Major Scale and the Fellow Craft Degree

The lessons of the FC Degree are numerous and I think we can all agree that every time we witness it, we learn something new. This group deals with music and I thought I'd take it upon myself to start a discussion/lesson on how music relates to Masonry so the common, non-musician/Mason can relate.

Early in our school careers, we learned the major scale in music class. Whether a musician or not, you can all hum the do, re, me, fa, so, la, ti, do or the expanded version consisting of a female deer and a ray, a drop of golden sun.

As a guitar player/former guitar teacher, I always taught music by numbers, not by notes. Lets get Masonic and assign numbers to the afformentioned tones of the major scale. The first note of the major scale (do) will be given the number one (1) with the corresponding notes in order (re-2, me-3, fa-4, so-5, la-6, ti-7.) The last "do" is the same note as the first but an OCTAVE higher. Octo, meaning eight is the resolve (the scale just doesn't sound right unless it resolves with the octave.) So the major scale consists of 7 notes: sing or play the above scale and leave out the ocatave (the last "do") and you get the picture. These single notes construct the major scale. Now we can compile these single notes, stack them on top of one another and start to build a chord.

A chord is a series of notes played in unison to form the mood of the musical piece. Since we are talking about the major scale and the FC degree, lets construct a major 7 chord.

A major 7 chord consists of the root (the "do" or the first note, commonly called the root note. Here's where "the pleasing tones of music" (in this case, the major chord) ties in with the FC degree. If we are playing in the key of G major (yes, I intentionally used G!) the root would be the G note (the 1 of the scale.) The construction of EVERY major 7 chord includes the root, the 3rd, the 5th, and the (yup, you guessed it!) the 7th. 3, 5, & 7 "steps" to make a major 7 chord.

Music is all about numbers. With the above lesson, you can construct many chords and scales. A couple of familiar names of modes (which is a completely different and more in-depth lesson) to Masons is the Ionian (Ionic,) & Dorian (Doric.) The proper name for the major scale is the Ionian scale. Playing the same G Major scale above but starting out on the second note (the 2 or "re" but properly called A in this example) will give you the Dorian (Doric) mode. So for you musicians out there; if you are playing a song in the key of A (and it would have to be A minor to sound right) and play a G major scale over it, you are actually playing in the Dorian mode. Alot to swallow, but very cool when you get the gist of it.

I encourage all members to chime in on their thoughts/research on the ties between Masonry and music. Remember, we are all encouraged to study the 7 Liberal Arts & Sciences, perhaps our studies can all pool together to make a great presentation at Lodge some night!

Fraternally,

Colin