MUSICAL THEORY 4

MUSICAL SCALES

We show the pitch of sound with musical notes and we organise these notes into
different scales. A musical scale is a series of sounds that can be in ascending order
(from low to high) or descending order (from high to low). We use these scales to create
melodies.

We use the letter for the first note to name a scale (C scale, D scale, E scale, etc).
Scales can have different numbers of notes. The scale that you know has seven notes,
starting with Do or C, and is called the diatonic C scale.

INTERVALS

An interval is a distance between two notes. We measure intervals in tones and half
tones, which we call semitones. A semitone is the smallest distance between two
consecutive notes.

We classify intervals in two ways:

● By direction of the notes: Intervals can be ascending or descending.

 ● By the distance between the notes: intervals can be a second (2nd), a third (3rd),
a fourth (4th), a fifth (5th), a sixth (6th), a seventh (7th) or an octave (8va). This
depends on the number of notes between them and both notes are included.

ACCIDENTALS

To modify the pitch of a note, we use three types of accidentals:

NAME SYMBOL DEFINITION

sharp Its shows that the pitch of a note is a semitone higher

flat It shows that the pitch of a note is a semitone lower

natural It cancels the effect of a sharp or a flat

The notes that you already know are called natural notes. The ones that have their
pitch modified by a sharp or a flat are accidental notes.