How many music scale are there

The key of B-Major is one of wild passion. It can represent emotions of intense love, anger, jealousy, and rage. It is one of the few major keys that symbolizes negative emotions. Dmitri Shostakovich's Symphony No. It was an event that was seen as triumphant but also was an armed insurrection. This highlights the conflict between love and rage. This means that while they look different, they will sound the same. C-sharp and D-flat are the same pitch. That said, some people have an easier time reading sharp or flats, and one of these keys might make more sense when looking at related keys or chord progressions.

It is a key described as being moderate but capable of expressing a range of emotions. It can be happy, but not joyous, or it can be sad, but not in agonizing pain. Now that you know the D-Flat major scale, you also know the C-Sharp major scale. Go note by note through these two scales and you will see that they are the same, but expressed differently. So yes, every single note in this scale is sharp.

Since this scale sounds, to the ear, the same as the D-Flat Major scale, it has similar musical character traits. That said, in compositions, these two keys might be approached differently, which will have a dramatic impact on the feelings they convey. Many more composers have written symphonies in C-sharp over D-flat. One famous example is Mahler's Symphony No. A famous work in the key of E-flat is Beethoven's Symphony No.

This piece was originally dedicated to Napoleon, which speaks to the idea of admiration love and devotion. The G-Flat Major scale is another scale that is an enharmonic equivalent. G-flat can also be written as F-sharp. G-Flat major has six flats, meaning every note in this scale is flat except for F. Now that you know G-flat, you also know F-sharp. Go through slowly and you'll see that you use the same fingerings and the pitches are the same. Its character is described as proclaiming triumph over difficulty which is certainly true if you try to play through it.

This key tells the story of a difficult struggle and ultimate triumph. The blues scale Figure 26 below is almost the same as the minor pentatonic scale, except that it has an extra note in the middle. The addition of that extra note, sometimes called a blue note , gives this scale a considerably different sound from the minor pentatonic. Figure 27 below shows a scale used in the Middle East. Try playing it on your guitar or piano. Compare this Arabic scale with the familiar major diatonic scale all the white keys on the piano, beginning with C.

The Arabic scale has four semitone intervals, including two consecutive semitones as you pass through the tonic note. These dissonances give the scale an exotic, other-worldly sound to Western ears. You can play this scale starting with any note on your guitar or piano. As usual, just make sure you preserve the order of the intervals , like this:. Normally, an equal-interval scale sounds like rubbish.

But here's an Indian equal-interval scale that sounds musical Figure It has a dream-like, fanciful quality. Almost surreal. This scale contains consonant intervals with simple frequency ratios major thirds, minor sixths and dissonant intervals major seconds, tritones, minor sevenths. This whole tone scale below is one of many scales used in Indian music.

Impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy used the whole tone scale in many compositions. The major pentatonic scale Figure 23 above is the same as the Chinese Mongolian scale.

The following pentatonic scale is also widely used in China Figure 29 :. And, finally, to get your blood a-boilin', here's the Hungarian minor scale, better known as the Hungarian Gypsy scale or the Hungarian Roma scale Figure Get somebody to play a fast tune with this scale. I may update this post or write a follow up post after thinking about it more.

I think the scales named in this post all sort of cluster together. Maybe some music student looking for a project could take this on. I did something along these lines but with eight distinct tone scales, such as the bebop or the diminished scales.

Essentially your definition but with nine notes, not eight. Might you be interested in hosting the offer? Hard copy can be made available. Yours Pete White. Your email address will not be published. So you can think of a scale climbing the rungs of the ladder which is represented by the stave.

For more information check out my detailed guide to scale degree names here. Major scales are defined by their combination of semitones and tones whole steps and half steps :. You can use this formula of whole steps and half steps to form a major scale starting on any note.

For a more in-depth looking at forming major scales check out this post where we go through all 12 major scales. This means that the third note of the scale is three semitones above the first note, unlike major scales where the third note of the scale is four semitones above. Each type of minor scale uses a slightly different formula of semitones and tones but they all have that minor third.