Scales

A musical scale is a set of notes ordered by increasing pitch.

Melodies and harmonies are created using a musical scale.

Usually, a scale is represented using a single octave, but when played, it may span over several octaves.

Musical scales are classified by the number of distinct notes in the scale:

• Pentatonics (5 tones),
• Hexatonics (6 tones),
• Heptatonics (7 tones),
• Octatonics (8 tones),
• Enneatonic (9 tones),
• etc.

A Scale is used as a guide or tool for composing melodies. A melody may be based on one or more scales.

Scales have historical and cultural value:

In the West, from 1600 to 1900, the following scales have been used extensively for composition:

• major, natural minor,
• melodic and harmonic minors.

In the 20th century, additional scales were explored:

• chromatic,
• whole tone,
• pentatonics,
• diminished.

A variety of other scales are used worldwide:

• Arabic,
• Hungarian,
• Persian,
• Indian,
• Balinese Pelog,
• Japanese Pentatonics,
• Blues,
• Jazz,
• etc.