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Big Ear Games
Education / Chromatic
The Chromatic Scale
is the canvas with all the musical pitches/notes, 12 per octave.
Neighboring notes are 1 semitone (pitch interval) apart.
All other scale types will be extracted from it.
2
1
4
3
5
6
7
9
8
10
11
12
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
1
Education / Major Minor
Major / Minor
Let's look how major and minor scales are built from the chromatic scale.
Notice that the pitch intervals are having a pattern.
They have 7 notes per octave.
Chromatic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Major
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Minor
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Chromatic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Major
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Minor
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Education / Major
C Major Scale
7 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 semitones apart (starting from the root).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
C Minor Scale
7 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 semitones apart (starting from the root).
3
1
2
6
4
5
7
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
Education / Minor
C Major Pentatonic
Major pentatonic scale is extracted from the major scale.
5 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 2, 3, 2, 3 semitones apart (starting from the root).
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
5
5
6
7
6
1
1
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
1
2
3
5
6
1
Education / Major Pentatonic
Education / Minor Pentatonic
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