Ukelele "Chord Scales" Music Theory Question

Hello All,

I've recently been getting more into scales and theory and such and found a ukulele related website that lists scale patterns (single note), along with corresponding "chord scales". The chord scales are the pattern of the scale in chords. My question is, why are all the chord scales listed with minor and diminished etc., if the note wasn't sharp or flat to begin with? I feel like my lack of theory knowledge is letting me down here.

For example:

The C major scale is: C D E F G A B

The C major "chord scale" is:
C major D minor E minor F major G major A minor B diminished

Why wouldn't the chords just be all major in this example?

Does anyone understand the theory behind this? Thank you in advance.

This all makes a lot more sense now, thank you. I read up on "diatonic" and also used a pen and paper to work out the intervals for scales- *lightbulb*

Would it also make sense to say that "keys" are diatonic based as well? For example, if a piece of music is in the key of Db, all the notes in that piece line-up/mirror with the related diatonic scale?

ubulele said:

But the steps in the scale pattern aren't uniform: most of them are whole steps, but two of them are only half steps—from the third to fourth note and from the seventh note to the octave

Click to expand...

Is this the same for all diatonic scales? A half step after the third note and a half after the seventh.

Thank you Creb for this thread, also a big thank you to ubulele. I would also like to be enlightened Creb regarding the method of writing chord names. For example ......a + after the chord letter means augmented but I am at a loss whenever I see a chord letter followed by a zero. Perhaps you can educate me Creb, or maybe ubulele will return to clarify. Regards. Jim.
PS: I should have used a capital letter A, naughty naughty.

Because the easiest modulation is from major to its "relative" minor and also because the minor songs use much more often harmonic and melodic scales than natural minor that is the relative minor of a key I suggest when practizing chord sequences to play also the 3rd degree of a major scale as III7.

So in C/Am also E7 besides Em. So the chord sequence Am Dm E7.

It is the 5th degree of a minor harmonic and melodic scale and some other chords are also the same as the major scale chordings in minor scales, so I think it is good way to widen up the basics a bit. In general minor songs are a bit more challenging in my opinion though.

Thank you ubulele for your link and your contribution to my education. Also thanks Creb for starting this thread and my hijacking of same. Jim.