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In music theory, an interval is a difference in pitch between two sounds. [1] An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or harmonic if it pertains to simultaneously sounding tones, such as in a chord.
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."
In music theory, a perfect fifth is the musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so.. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval from the first to the last of the first five consecutive notes in a diatonic scale. [2]
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:
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 ...
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.
Because diatonic scale is itself ambiguous, distinguishing intervals is also ambiguous. [p] For example, the interval B ♮ –E ♭ (a diminished fourth, occurring in C harmonic minor) is considered diatonic if the harmonic minor scale is considered diatonic, [23] but chromatic if the harmonic minor scale is not considered diatonic. [24]
The major scale is maximally even. 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.