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A musical scale (Latin: scala, "staircase")
is a determinate series of related tones within an OCTAVE,
providing an inventory of pitches available for composition
and a convenient basis for vocal or instrumental practice.
Innumerable scales may be found in or inferred from the music
of different periods and peoples: the familiar diatonic scale
of modern Western music, a descendant of the medieval European
modes and thus of ancient Greek scales, is in no sense definitive.
Whole-tone (CDF#G#A#C') and pentatonic (CDFGAC') scales, both
of which have influenced composers in the West, are commonly
found elsewhere.
The diatonic scale (CDEFGABC') consists of five whole tones
(or whole steps) and two semitones (half steps) in the arrangement
11 1/2 111 1/2. This is called the major mode, as distinguished
from the minor in which the arrangement of intervals is 1
1/2 1111 1/2. These scales may be transposed to begin on any
of the 12 tones of the complete chromatic or semitonal scale.
Hence, there are 12 major and 12 minor scales, each corresponding
to a KEY.
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