C Gypsy Major Scale on Soprano Ukulele

Play the C Gypsy Major scale on Soprano Ukulele with fretboard diagrams that map the pattern across the neck. The Gypsy Major scale has 7 notes per octave and belongs to the world family.

Every open string on Soprano Ukulele belongs to C Gypsy Major, C among them — G (the 5th), C (the root), E (the 3rd), A (the 6th). That makes ringing open notes a free voice under the line. Open, the strings cover C4 to A4.

It is also known as the Hungarian Major scale.

Brash and colorful — a #2 crushed against the major 3rd and a #4 give it a Lydian-dominant swagger with a Romani twist. Bold, spicy, and unpredictable.

Heard in: Hungarian and Romani folk, Bartok and Liszt, gypsy-jazz flourishes, and fusion lines over dominant chords.

It has the shortest scale of the ukulele family, around 13 inches, so the frets sit very close together.

Each position shows the scale notes and their intervals from the root so you can connect the shape to its sound, hear it with audio playback, and practice it in any register. Movable patterns let you transpose the same fingering to other keys once it is learned.

Once a position is under your fingers, link the C Gypsy Major scale to the chords it harmonizes and to progressions in the key of C to start improvising and writing with it. Working a scale alongside its chords is the fastest way to make it stick and to hear how it colors a progression.