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Western letter pitch notation has the virtue of identifying discrete pitches, but among its disadvantages are its occasional inability to represent pitches or inflections lying outside those theoretically derived, or (leaving aside chordal and tablature notations) representing the relationship between pitches—e.g., it does not indicate the difference between a whole step and a half step ...
It is defined as the interval between two adjacent notes in a 12-tone scale (or half of a whole step), visually seen on a keyboard as the distance between two keys that are adjacent to each other. For example, C is adjacent to C ♯ ; the interval between them is a semitone.
Each of the other five notes, Re, Ga, Ma, Dha and Ni, can take a 'regular' (shuddha) pitch, which is equivalent to its pitch in a standard major scale (thus, shuddha Re, the second degree of the scale, is a whole-step higher than Sa), or an altered pitch, either a half-step above or half-step below the shuddha pitch.
Accidental symbols visually communicate a modification of a note's pitch from its tonal context. Most commonly, [note 2] the sharp symbol (♯) raises a note by a half step, while the flat symbol (♭) lowers a note by a half step. This half step interval is also known as a semitone (which has an equal temperament frequency ratio of 12 √ 2 ≅
The term scale step is sometimes used synonymously with scale degree, but it may alternatively refer to the distance between two successive and adjacent scale degrees (see steps and skips). The terms " whole step " and " half step " are commonly used as interval names (though "whole scale step" or "half scale step" are not used).
The second is a link to the article that details that symbol, using its Unicode standard name or common alias. (Holding the mouse pointer on the hyperlink will pop up a summary of the symbol's function.); The third gives symbols listed elsewhere in the table that are similar to it in meaning or appearance, or that may be confused with it;
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For example, C to D (major second) is a step, whereas C to E (major third) is a skip. More generally, a step is a smaller or narrower interval in a musical line, and a skip is a wider or larger interval with the categorization of intervals into steps and skips is determined by the tuning system and the pitch space used.