Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
In Western music, intervals are most commonly differences between notes of a diatonic scale. Intervals between successive notes of a scale are also known as scale steps. The smallest of these intervals is a semitone. Intervals smaller than a semitone are called microtones. They can be formed using the notes of various kinds of non-diatonic scales.
Many music theorists concur that the constituent intervals of a scale have a large role in the cognitive perception of its sonority, or tonal character. "The number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound quality."
Only the intervals of a second, third, sixth, and seventh (and the compound intervals based on them) may be major or minor (or, rarely, diminished or augmented). Unisons, fourths, fifths, and octaves and their compound interval must be perfect (or, rarely, diminished or augmented). In Western music, a minor chord "sounds darker than a major ...
The pattern of whole and half steps characteristic of a major scale. The intervals from the tonic (keynote) in an upward direction to the second, to the third, to the sixth, and to the seventh scale degrees of a major scale are called major. [1] A major scale is a diatonic scale. The sequence of intervals between the notes of a major scale is:
For example, for every generic interval of a second there are only two possible specific intervals: 1 semitone (a minor second) or 2 semitones (a major second). In diatonic set theory a generic interval is the number of scale steps between notes of a collection or scale. The largest generic interval is one less than the number of scale members ...
In music, a step, or conjunct motion, [1] is the difference in pitch between two consecutive notes of a musical scale. In other words, it is the interval between two consecutive scale degrees. Any larger interval is called a skip (also called a leap), or disjunct motion. [1]
In music theory, the scale degree is the position of a particular note on a scale [1] relative to the tonic—the first and main note of the scale from which each octave is assumed to begin. Degrees are useful for indicating the size of intervals and chords and whether an interval is major or minor.
List of musical scales and modes Name Image Sound Degrees Intervals Integer notation # of pitch classes Lower tetrachord Upper tetrachord Use of key signature usual or unusual 15 equal temperament: 15-tet scale on C. Play ⓘ — — — 15 — — — 16 equal temperament: 16-tet scale on C. Play ⓘ — — — 16 — — 17 equal temperament ...