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The C major scale, ascending and descending. In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave ", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. [ 1 ][ 2 ] The word "scale" originates from the Latin scala, which literally means " ladder ".
1200 [ 1] In music, an octave ( Latin: octavus: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) [ 2] is a series of eight notes occupying the interval between (and including) two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referred to as the "basic ...
The term quarter tone can refer to a number of different intervals, all very close in size. For example, some 17th- and 18th-century theorists used the term to describe the distance between a sharp and enharmonically distinct flat in mean-tone temperaments (e.g., D ♯ –E ♭ ). [ 2 ] In the quarter-tone scale, also called 24-tone equal ...
Glossary of music terminology. A variety of musical terms are encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special musical meanings of these phrases differ from the original or current Italian meanings.
A cent is a unit of measure for the ratio between two frequencies. An equally tempered semitone (the interval between two adjacent piano keys) spans 100 cents by definition. An octave —two notes that have a frequency ratio of 2:1—spans twelve semitones and therefore 1200 cents. The ratio of frequencies one cent apart is precisely equal to ...
Minor second. A semitone, also called a minor second, half step, or a half tone, [ 3] is the smallest musical interval commonly used in Western tonal music, [ 4] and it is considered the most dissonant [ 5] when sounded harmonically. It is defined as the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale (or half of a whole step ), visually ...
Musical symbols are marks and symbols in musical notation that indicate various aspects of how a piece of music is to be performed. There are symbols to communicate information about many musical elements, including pitch, duration, dynamics, or articulation of musical notes; tempo, metre, form (e.g., whether sections are repeated), and details ...
The first two phrases of the melody from Stephen Foster 's " Oh! Susanna " are based on the major pentatonic scale [ 1 ] A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale ). Pentatonic scales were developed independently ...