A scale is a sequence of notes (known as ‘degrees’) that provides the raw material for a piece of music. The intervals between the notes follow a set pattern that depends on the type of scale. The ...

While major and minor scales have seven notes, pentatonic scales have only five. Essentially a major scale minus the 4th and 7th – C D E G A – the major pentatonic is a staple of folk, blues, rock and ...

Solmization, the practice of assigning syllables to the different “steps” of the musical scale, originated in ancient India. Fast forward a few thousand years to 6th-century Spain, when ...

The fact that singers fail to consistently hit the right notes may have implications for the development of musical scales as well. At issue is not whether singers hit the right or wrong note, but ...

The frequency of every note occurs in a simple ratio to those of other notes, such as 3:2 or 2:1. Dale Purves, a neuroscientist at Duke University, set out to understand if there was a ­biological ...

The modes were named after various regions, perhaps to represent the people who lived there, because Greek musical theorists were philosophers too, and associated the arts with aspects of morality.