Core music theory vocabulary: intervals, scales, chords, and notation terms.
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- What is an interval in music?
- The distance between two pitches, measured in semitones or by counting letter names.
- What is a semitone (or half step)?
- The smallest interval in Western music; the distance between any two adjacent keys on a piano.
- What is a whole step (or tone)?
- An interval equal to two semitones.
- Name the perfect intervals.
- Unison (0), perfect fourth (5 semitones), perfect fifth (7 semitones), and octave (12 semitones).
- What is a major second?
- An interval of 2 semitones.
- What is a minor third?
- An interval of 3 semitones.
- What is a major third?
- An interval of 4 semitones.
- What is a tritone?
- An interval of 6 semitones; the interval between a perfect fourth and a perfect fifth.
- What is the major scale pattern?
- Whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half (W-W-H-W-W-W-H).
- What is the natural minor scale pattern?
- Whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole (W-H-W-W-H-W-W).
- What is the harmonic minor scale?
- The natural minor scale with a raised seventh scale degree.
- What is the melodic minor scale?
- Going up, the natural minor scale with raised sixth and seventh degrees; going down, the same as natural minor.
- What is a pentatonic scale?
- A five-note scale, most commonly major pentatonic (omitting the fourth and seventh) or minor pentatonic (omitting the second and sixth).
- What is the chromatic scale?
- A twelve-note scale consisting of all semitones, containing every black and white key in one octave on piano.
- What is a scale degree?
- A position within a scale, numbered 1 through 7 in a diatonic scale, with names: tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, leading tone.