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For the ordinary diatonic scales described here, the T-s are tones and the s-s are semitones which are half, or approximately half the size of the tone.But in the more general regular diatonic tunings, the two steps can be of any relation within the range between T = 171.43 ¢ (for s = T at the high extreme) and T = 240 ¢ (for s = 0 at the low extreme) in musical cents (fifth, p5, between 685 ...
12 tone equal temperament chromatic scale on C, one full octave ascending, notated only with sharps. Play ascending and descending ⓘ. An equal temperament is a musical temperament or tuning system that approximates just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequencies of any adjacent pair of notes is the same.
For other tuning schemes, refer to musical tuning. This list of frequencies is for a theoretically ideal piano. On an actual piano, the ratio between semitones is slightly larger, especially at the high and low ends, where string stiffness causes inharmonicity, i.e., the tendency for the harmonic makeup of each note to run sharp.
Diatonic scale on C, equal tempered Play ⓘ and Ptolemy's intense or just Play ⓘ.. Ptolemy's intense diatonic scale, also known as the Ptolemaic sequence, [1] justly tuned major scale, [2] [3] [4] Ptolemy's tense diatonic scale, or the syntonous (or syntonic) diatonic scale, is a tuning for the diatonic scale proposed by Ptolemy, [5] and corresponding with modern 5-limit just intonation. [6]
A Pythagorean tuning is technically both a type of just intonation and a zero-comma meantone tuning, in which the frequency ratios of the notes are all derived from the number ratio 3:2. Using this approach for example, the 12 notes of the Western chromatic scale would be tuned to the following ratios: 1:1, 256:243, 9:8, 32:27, 81:64, 4:3, 729: ...
The syntonic comma has a crucial role in the history of music. It is the amount by which some of the notes produced in Pythagorean tuning were flattened or sharpened to produce just minor and major thirds. In Pythagorean tuning, the only highly consonant intervals were the perfect fifth and its inversion, the perfect fourth.
Claudius Ptolemy of Alexandria described several 7-limit tuning systems for the diatonic and chromatic genera. He describes several "soft" (μαλακός) diatonic tunings which all use 7-limit intervals. [7] One, called by Ptolemy the "tonic diatonic," is ascribed to the Pythagorean philosopher and statesman Archytas of Tarentum.
The name "meantone temperament" derives from the fact that in all such temperaments the size of the whole tone, within the diatonic scale, is somewhere between the major and minor tones (9:8 and 10:9 respectively) of just intonation, which differ from each other by a syntonic comma.