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Degrees of a Diatonic Scale

Each note of a scale is referred to as a degree of the key:

	Degree	Name			Chords
C	1st degree	Tonic	I	1	Major
D	2nd degree	Supertonic	II	2	Minor
E	3rd degree	Mediant	III	3	Minor
F	4th degree	Subdominant	IV	4	Maj 7
G	5th degree	Dominant	V	5	7
A	6th degree	Submediant	VI	6	Minor
B	7th degree	Leading	VII	7	Dim
C	8th degree	Tonic	VIII	8	Major

The diatonic C Major scale has no sharps or flats and can be a starting point for understanding the conventions that govern transposition.

From the C Major key
C - - D - - E - F - - G - - A - -B - C ('-' equals one semitone or fret) fret)

we can extract the pattern of semitones between the notes:

2 2 1 2 2 2 1 etween each note.