Pentatonic scale and a tritone hexatonic scale
Learn about all kinds of scales with different amounts of notes!
Scales don't have to have 7 notes in them. For example, the diminished scale, or octatonic scale has eight notes. And you've probably never heard of this one, a pentatonic scale!
A pentatonic scale is a scale that has 5 notes in it. You can listen to it on the side. A major pentatonic scale is (in a major heptatonic scale) 1,2,3,5,6. In a C scale, it'd be C,D,E,G,A. A minor pentatonic scale is (in a minor heptatonic scale) 1,3,4,5,7. If it was in A minor, it'd be A,C,D,E,G. Songs are rarely played in specifically this scale, but a lot of songs have that for a beginning. It's also used in teaching children to improvise
A hexatonic scale isn't just one scale, it's a group of scales, just like a heptatonic scale. Listen to one on the side. A whole tone scale in C would be C,D,E,♯F,♯G;,♯A;. An augmented scale in C would be C,♭E,♮E,G,♯G,B. There are a lot more, although they are not shown here. You can also make it putting two tritone scales together, making a C major go C,♭D,E,♯F,G,♭B and so on.
Heptatonic Scale (diatonic scale)
A heptatonic scale, most commonly known as a diatonic scale (right now we were using it as a heptatonic scale to go along with the numbers) is used very often. You should know how it sounds and what it looks like, so we will skip that. A diatonic scale is just basically a regular scale - just with a fancy name. This scale isn't special, except for the fact that it's used most often. It is thought to be found in a "Neanderthal flute", a 45,000 year old artifact found. The problem is that there's no proof it's an instrument.
The octatonic scale, normally called the diminished scale, is a scale with eight notes. You rarely play the scale, but often, you play a diminished chord, like diminished C7. You can listen to it on the diminished scale page. If you have any questions or comments, you can ask them in our contact us page.