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m
|-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h |-h|
|--w --|--w --|-h |--w --|--w --|--w --|-h|
|--w --|--w --|-h |--w --|--w --|--w --|-h|
→The Major Scale
The ''major scale'' is composed of root, +1 whole step, +1 whole step, +1 half step, +1 whole step, +1 whole step, +1 whole step. Another +1 half step gets us to the octave of the root note. In other words, 2 whole steps, a half step, 3 whole steps, and a half step. Below is the chromatic scale starting on C, then the C Major scale. The h's represent half steps (semi-tones) and the w's represent whole steps. The chromatic scale consists of 12 semi-tones.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C
C D E F G A B C
Each major scale has the same quality as every other. C Major will sound like C# Major will sound like A Major. It doesn't matter that C Major has no sharps or flats while C# Major is all sharps (C# D# E# F# G# A# B#) and A Major has 3 sharps (A B C# D E F# G#). What matters is the whole-tone/semi-tone relationships between notes:
C D E F G A B C
C# D# E# F# G# A# B# C#