StudySpace: The Enjoyment of Music: Essential Listening Edition

Key Points

• An octave is the interval spanning eight notes of the scale. In Western music, the octave is divided into twelve half steps, the smallest interval used; two half steps make a whole step.
• The chromatic scale is made up of these twelve half steps, while a diatonic scale is built on patterns of seven whole and half steps that form major and minor scales.
• A sharp (#) is a symbol that raises a tone by a half step; a flat (b) lowers a tone by a half step.
• Other scale types are used around the world, built on different numbers of pitches and sometimes use microtones, which are intervals smaller than half steps.
• The tonic chord, built on the first scale tone, is the home base to which active chords (dominant and subdominant ) need to resolve.
• Composers can shift the pitch level of an entire work (transposition) or change the center, or key, during a work (modulation).

Section Menu

Instructors now have an easy way to collect students’ online quizzes with the Norton Gradebook without flooding their inboxes with e-mails.

Students can track their online quiz scores by setting up their own Student Gradebook.