There is only one other set of notes that creates a whole tone scale and that is:ДЄll whole tone scales use notes from one of these two groupings. Notice that this uses half the notes in an octave. As you may have guessed this scale is composed entirely of whole steps. The whole tone scale is composed of six notes. There is also a minor pentatonic scale and an example of it is: This leads to the formula for the major pentatonic scale: The classic example of a pentatonic scale are the black keys of a piano. Many folk songs have melodies based on the pentatonic scale. Pentatonic scales are made from five notes. IвЂ™ve listed their names, formulas, and mood I associate with each mode below. In fact, the major scale is a mode (the Ionian mode), and the natural minor scale is the Aeolian mode. They even use the same order of notes вЂ“ just with a different starting point. Like the major and minor scales the modes have 7 notes per octave. It is the natural minor scale when descending, but when ascending the two notes before the starting note are sharped.ДЄgain, the descending notes are the same as the natural minor scale. The melodic minor scale is one of the strangest. I think the funky m3 followed by a half steps creates more tension. The harmonic minor scale sounds edgier than the natural minor scale. So G becomes Gв™Ї in the a harmonic minor scale. The harmonic minor scale is like the natural minor scale, but the note before we reach the starting note again is sharped. (Notice these are the same notes as the C major scale!) Harmonic Minor So if we start on A and apply the formula we create:

The natural minor scale formula uses the same sequence of intervals as the major scale formula, just with a different starting point. For this post I will just give the formulas. I go in more depth on the necessity for these three types in this post on major and minor scales. There are three types of minor scales вЂ“ the natural, harmonic, and melodic. The general feeling of a minor scale is вЂњsadвЂќ or вЂњnegative emotions.вЂќ The general feeling of a major scale is вЂњhappyвЂќ or вЂњpositive emotions.вЂќДЄs we discovered above the formula for a major scale is:ДЇor example if we start on an E and apply the formula we move up a W to Fв™Ї, up a W to Gв™Ї, up an H to A, up a W to B, up a W to Cв™Ї, up a W to Dв™Ї, up an H to E. The intervalic relationship between C and D is a M2 or a whole step (W) the intervalic relationship between D and E is a M2 between E and F is a m2 etc. The C major scale is вЂ“ C D E F G A B (C). If you are uncomfortable with these abbreviations check out this article on intervals to refresh completely. In addition we will use half step (H) interchangeably with m2 and whole step (W) interchangeable with M2. We will use lists of intervals in this post. Defining scalesД«efore we discuss the scales we need an efficient way to spell them out. While technically this means there are an infinite number of scales, there are only a few commonly used in western music.

A scale is a group of pitches organized in ascending or descending order.

Natural harmonic melodic minor scales