Editing Scale (music) (section)

==Western music==
{{See also|Musical mode}}
{{unsourced section|date=March 2025}}
Scales in [[European classical music|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 [[Music Terminology|whole and half step]] [[interval (music)|intervals]] of ''tones'' and ''semitones.'' The [[harmonic minor scale]] includes a three-semitone step; the anhemitonic pentatonic includes two of those and no semitones.

Western music in the [[Medieval music|Medieval]] and [[Renaissance music|Renaissance]] periods (1100–1600) tends to use the white-note [[diatonic scale]] C–D–E–F–G–A–B. [[Accidental (music)|Accidentals]] are rare, and somewhat unsystematically used, often to avoid the [[tritone]].

Music of the common practice periods (1600–1900) uses three types of scale:
* The [[diatonic scale]] (seven notes)—this includes the major scale and the natural minor
* The melodic and harmonic [[minor scale]]s (seven notes)

These scales are used in all of their transpositions. The music of this period introduces ''modulation,'' which involves systematic changes from one scale to another. Modulation occurs in relatively conventionalized ways. For example, major-mode pieces typically begin in a "tonic" diatonic scale and modulate to the "dominant" scale a fifth above.
{{Image frame|content=<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' { 
  \clef treble \time 6/4
  f4 g a b cis dis f2
} }
</score>|width=300|caption=The [[whole tone scale]] starting on F, ascending}}In the 19th century (to a certain extent), but more in the 20th century, additional types of scales were explored:

* The [[chromatic scale]] (twelve notes)
* The [[whole tone scale|whole-tone scale]] (six notes)
* The [[pentatonic scale]] (five notes)
* The octatonic or [[diminished scale]]s (eight notes)
{{Image frame|content=<score sound="1"> {
\override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f
\relative c' { 
  \clef treble \time 7/4
  c4 d es fis g aes b c2
} }
</score>|width=300|caption=The [[Hungarian minor scale]] starting on C, ascending}}A large variety of other scales exists, some of the more common being:

* The [[Phrygian dominant scale]] (a mode of the harmonic minor scale)
* The [[Arabic maqam|Arabic scales]]
* The [[Hungarian minor scale]]
* The [[Byzantine music]] scales (called echoi)
* The [[Persian scale]]
Scales such as the pentatonic scale may be considered ''gapped'' relative to the diatonic scale. An ''auxiliary scale'' is a scale other than the primary or original scale. See: [[modulation (music)]] and [[Petrushka chord|Auxiliary diminished scale]].