Scales are typically listed from low to high pitch. Most scales are octave-repeating, meaning their pattern of notes is the … See more

Scales in traditional Western music generally consist of seven notes and repeat at the octave. Notes in the commonly used scales (see just below) are separated by whole and half step intervals of tones and semitones. The … See more

In many musical circumstances, a specific note of the scale is chosen as the tonic—the central and most stable note of the scale. In Western tonal music, simple songs or pieces typically start and end on the tonic note. Relati… See more

Composers transform musical patterns by moving every note in the pattern by a constant number of scale steps: thus, in the C major scale, the pattern C–D–E might be shifted up, or transposed, a single scale step to bec… See more