Music Terms - Scales, Keys, and Modes

• Accidental - any of the signs that affect pitch - sharp, flat, natural, double-sharp, and double-flat. This term is sometimes use to refer to notes that are not found within a scale or key.
• Chromatic - a section of music that uses the chromatic scale, or notes that are not from the scale or key.
• Chromaticism - music that uses chromatic notes, i.e., notes not from the scale or key signature.
• Chromatic Scale - sequence of notes at half-step intervals: (H - half-step) HHH etc.
• Circle of Fifths - the relationship that is found between keys and key signatures. It can also refer to chord progressions that follow root movement by fifths.
• Scale a succession of pitches such as a major scale, e.g., C major: C D E F G A B C.
• Diatonic - pitches only from the scale or key
• Diatonic Scale Degree Names - a series of names given to each of the seven notes usually found in scales
• Key the key signature, or the tonal center (homebase, keynote, key center).
• Key Signature - the area to the left of each line of music that stipulates which sharps or flats are indicated.
• Major - a scale and associated music that uses the major scale, which has an alphabetical sequence with the pattern (W - whole-step, H - half-step) WWHWWWH, or in half-steps, 2 2 1 2 2 2 1.
• Minor Mode and Its Three Scalar Varieties - a sequence of alphabetical notes that follow three different patterns call natural, harmonic, and melodic minor.
• Mode - another name for scale, or often to refer to scales derived from a parent scale, such as the modes of major, which all use the same pitches but start from different notes.
• Modes of Major - a set of seven scales that use the same notes of a major scale. Each of the seven scales - called modes - start on a different scale degree of the parent major scale.
• Pantatonic Scale - a scale consisting of only five letter names, such as the A minor pentatonic scale: A C D E G.
• Parallel Key - a major and minor key that have the same tonic (starting pitch), such as C major and C minor.
• Relative Key - a major and minor key that have the identical key signatures, such as C major and A minor.
• Scalar Variance - variations of a scale, such as the three varieties of minor mode - natural, harmonic, and melodic.
• Tonal - music that has a pitch center/keynote/homebase around which the music revolves.
• Tonality the tonal center (homebase, keynote, key center, key) or music that revolves around a specific pitch.
• Tonic - the first note of a scale, also called the first scale degree. This also refers to the keynote, the letter name of the key. For example, the tonic of C major is "C".
• Scale Degree Numbers - the numbering of notes in a scale.
• Scale Degree Names - names given to each scale degree.
• Wholte-Tone Scale - succession of pitches that are always one whole-step apart, following the formula (W - whole-step) W W W W W W etc.