Scale (music) - Naming The Notes of A Scale

Naming The Notes of A Scale

In many musical circumstances, a specific note of the scale will be chosen as the tonic—the central and most stable note of the scale, also known as the root note. Relative to a choice of tonic, the notes of a scale are often labeled with numbers recording how many scale steps above the tonic they are. For example, the notes of the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) can be labeled {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, reflecting the choice of C as tonic. The expression scale degree refers to these numerical labels. Such labeling requires the choice of a "first" note; hence scale-degree labels are not intrinsic to the scale itself, but rather to its modes. For example, if we choose A as tonic, then we can label the notes of the C major scale using A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on. When we do so, we create a new scale called the A minor scale.

The scale degrees of a heptatonic (7-note) scale can also be named using the terms tonic, supertonic, mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, subtonic. If the subtonic is a semitone away from the tonic, then it is usually called the leading-tone (or leading-note); otherwise the leading-tone refers to the raised subtonic. Also commonly used is the (movable do) solfège naming convention in which each scale degree is denoted by a syllable. In the major scale, the solfege syllables are: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, So (or Sol), La, Ti (or Si), Do (or Ut).

In naming the notes of a scale, it is customary that each scale degree be assigned its own letter name: for example, the A major scale is written A–B–C♯–D–E–F♯–G♯ rather than A–B–D♭–D–E–E–G♯. However, it is impossible to do this with scales containing more than seven notes.

Scales may also be identified by using a binary system of twelve zeros or ones to represent each of the twelve notes of a chromatic scale. It is assumed that the scale is tuned using 12-tone equal temperament (so that, for instance, C♯ is the same as D♭), and that the tonic is in the leftmost position. For example the binary number 101011010101, equivalent to the decimal number 2773, would represent any major scale (such as C-D-E-F-G-A-B). This system includes scales from 100000000000 (2048) to 111111111111 (4095), providing a total of 2048 possible species, but only 352 unique scales containing from 1 to 12 notes.

Scales may also be shown as semitones (or fret positions) from the tonic. For instance, 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 denotes any major scale such as C-D-E-F-G-A-B, in which the first degree is, obviously, 0 semitones from the tonic (and therefore coincides with it), the second is 2 semitones from the tonic, the third is 4 semitones from the tonic, and so on. Again, this implies that the notes are drawn from a chromatic scale tuned with 12-tone equal temperament. S