What is the C Whole Tone Scale?
The whole tone scale is built entirely from whole steps — six notes, no half steps, perfectly symmetrical. This means it has no strong pull toward any single note, creating a dreamlike, suspended quality that composers like Debussy and jazz saxophonists like Wayne Shorter have used to evoke mystery and ambiguity. Here's how the C Whole Tone Scale lays out on the fretboard.
Notes and Positions
No half steps. Dreamy and unstable. On guitar, you can treat this as both a lead vocabulary and a way to see chord tones inside common shapes. Start with one box, then connect it to the nearest root on the next string set. In the key of C, the notes are: C, D, E, F#, G#, Bb.
How to Use It
You'll often hear it in Impressionism, Jazz, and Film Scores. A good way to internalize the sound is to sing the root, then sing a few scale degrees before you play them.
Start by playing one position slowly and saying the note names or degrees out loud. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.