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These scales have seven different scale degrees. There are half steps between the
second and third and the fifth and sixth degrees; whole steps exist between all other
steps. Shown below is the A minor scale.
Pentatonic Scales
Pentatonic scales, as their name suggests, have only five notes. To get from one end of
the scale to the other, they require gaps of more than a half step.
Scales that do not follow the interval patterns of the diatonic or pentatonic scales are
called nondiatonic scales. Many nondiatonic scales have no identifiable tonic.
The chromatic scale is a nondiatonic scale that consists of half steps only. Because
each pitch is equidistant, there is no tonic. A whole tone scale is comprised of whole
steps. Like the chromatic scale, it too has no tonic. The blues scale is a chromatic
variant of the major scale. This scale contains flat thirds and sevenths which , alternate
with normal thirds and sevenths. This , alternating creates the blues inflection.
CHORDS
Chords are the vertical arrangement of notes from a scale. The study of chords is
called Harmony. Harmony is concerned with how one or more notes interact, and how
they follow each other. Many people define chords as several notes played
simultaneously. It must be pointed out that it is possible to play music of a chordal
nature on the flute, trumpet, or a lone human voice, all three being monophonic
instruments. Since obviously monophonic instruments cannot play a stacked chord
where the notes are sounded simultaneously; the chords are implied. A simpler way of
viewing this is that when chord tones are played as an arpeggio on a monophonic
instrument the human ear interprets that there is a harmonic structure. We therefore
define a chord as the basic element of harmony.
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