page_title: Heptatonic scale
section_title: Heptatonia tertia
hierarchical_section_title: Heptatonic scale / Heptatonia tertia
caption_attribution_description: English: Neapolitan major scale on C.&#91;1&#93;&#91;2&#93;&#91;3&#93;
context_page_description: A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches per octave. Examples include the major scale or minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the melodic minor scale, A B C D E F♯G♯A ascending, A G F E D C B A descending; the harmonic minor scale, A B C D E F G♯A; and a scale variously known as the Byzantine, and Hungarian, scale, C D E♭ F♯ G A♭ B C. Indian classical theory postulates seventy-two seven-tone scale types, whereas others postulate twelve or ten seven-tone scale types collectively called thaat.
  Several heptatonic scales in Western, Roman, Spanish, Hungarian, and Greek music can be analyzed as juxtapositions of tetrachords. All heptatonic scales have all intervals present in their interval vector analysis, and thus all heptatonic scales are both hemitonic and tritonic. There is a special affinity for heptatonic scales in the Western key signature system.
context_section_description: The last group of seven-note tone/semitone scales is heptatonia tertia, and consists of scales with two adjacent semitones—which amounts to a whole-tone scale, but with an additional note somewhere in its sequence, e.g., B C D E F♯ G♯ A♯. One such example is the Neapolitan major scale.
caption: Neapolitan major scale on C About this soundPlay (help·info)
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