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The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone, also known as a half-step, above or below its adjacent pitches. As a result, in 12-tone equal temperament (the most common tuning in Western music), the chromatic scale covers all 12 of the available pitches. Thus, there is only one chromatic scale.
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.
For instance, in a chromatic scale each scale step represents a semitone interval, while a major scale is defined by the interval pattern W–W–H–W–W–W–H, where W stands for whole step (an interval spanning two semitones, e.g. from C to D), and H stands for half-step (e.g. from C to D ♭).
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.
In music theory a diatonic scale is a heptatonic (seven-note) scale that includes five whole steps (whole tones) and two half steps (semitones) in each octave, in which the two half steps are separated from each other by either two or three whole steps. In other words, the half steps are maximally separated from each other.
where "whole" stands for a whole tone (a red u-shaped curve in the figure), and "half" stands for a semitone (a red angled line in the figure). [2] Whole steps and half steps are explained mathematically in a related article, Twelfth root of two. Notably, an equal-tempered octave has twelve half steps (semitones) spaced equally in terms of the ...
Each octatonic scale has exactly two modes: the first begins its ascent with a whole step, while the second begins its ascent with a half step . These modes are sometimes referred to as the whole step/half-step diminished scale and the half-step/whole step diminished scale, respectively. [10]
Minor tone (10:9) Play ⓘ. In Western music theory, a major second (sometimes also called whole tone or a whole step) is a second spanning two semitones (Play ⓘ).A second is a musical interval encompassing two adjacent staff positions (see Interval number for more details).