Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
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 ♭).
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 ...
His theoretical writings cover many topics, including musical logic, [1] notation, [2] harmony, [3] melody, [4] phraseology, [5] the history of music theory, [6] etc. More particularly, the term Riemannian theory often refers to his theory of harmony, characterized mainly by its dualism and by a concept of harmonic functions .
The two modes are sometimes referred to as the half-step/whole step diminished scale and the whole step/half-step diminished scale. [10] Because it was associated in the early 20th century with the Dutch composer Willem Pijper, in the Netherlands it is called the Pijper scale. [11]
A pattern of whole and half steps in the Ionian mode or major scale on C. Notes can be arranged in a variety of scales and modes. Western music theory generally divides the octave into a series of twelve pitches, called a chromatic scale, within which the interval between adjacent tones is called a semitone, or half step. Selecting tones from ...
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.
It is a symmetrical scale with a slightly ambiguous tonal centre, due to the many half steps. Its step pattern is W, H, +, H, H, +, H, where W indicates a whole step , H indicates a half step , and + indicates an augmented second (three half steps, enharmonically equivalent to a minor third but functionally distinct).