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{{L3}}
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'''Do re me'''
'''Do re me'''
{{L4}}'''Notes''': All music is divided into twelve “semitones”. These are the black and white keys on the piano. The twelve notes then repeat themselves. Physiologically, this is because the frequency of oscillation of the tone has doubled: Middle A is 440 Hz. A up one octave is 880 Hz. And so on. The interval between those notes is called an octave. This is confusing, and contains a western presumption, so just bear with it for now. The space between tones before they start repeating is an “octave”. Different cultures divide these twelve semitones of an octave up differently.  
{{L4}}'''Notes''': All music is divided into twelve “semitones”. These are the black and white keys on the piano. Once you get through the twelve notes they start repeating themselves. The interval between those notes before they start repeating is an “octave”. This is confusing, and contains a Western prejudice, but bear with it for now. Audio freaks: a to go up or down an octave is to double (or half) the frequency of the tone: Middle A is 440 Hz. A one octave higher is 880 Hz. And so on. Guitar freaks: the octave of an open guitar string is exactly halfway between the bridge and the nut. Physics. <li>
{{L5}} Much “Eastern” music has six “tones” of two semitones each — hence it is called a whole-tone scale: this is easy, as 12 divided by 2 is six. The semitone intervals between each note are therefore: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 (and another 2 to get back to the octave note). It sounds odd to Western ears:<li>
'''Intervals''': Different cultures divide up the twelve semitones of an octave up differently.  
Scottish bagpipes can only play ''five'' tones. Two of the intervals are three tones: 3 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2 (and another 2 to get back to the octave note). This does ''not'' sound so odd to Western ears, for reasons we will come to. <li>
{{L5}} '''Eastern''': Much “Eastern” music has six “tones” equally spaced by two semitones — hence it is called a “whole-tone scale”. This is easy and nicely mathematical: 12 semitones divided by 2 is six. The semitone intervals between each note are therefore: 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 2. However: the wholetone scale sounds ''odd'' to Western ears. It ''isn’t'' “odd”: Western ears are just acculturated to something different.<li>
Western music has, for the most part, ''seven'' tones. 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 (and another 1 to get back to the octave note.</ol><li>
'''Western''': Western music has, for the most part, ''seven'' tones. Since 7 doesn’t go into 12, you have uneven intervals between the notes: they are 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1. Those eight notes: well, seven plus the one to get back to the beginning) is where the word “octave” comes from. Hence the monocultural bigotry of our musical notation. But anyway. <li>
'''Key''': Every song has a “base tone” in the octave — the “key” — which the melody is based around. This is an anchor, and determines which notes sound nice and which do not. So, pick a key. <li>
'''Popular''': Popular music comprises, principally, ''five'' tones. Five doesn’t go into 12 either, so again there are uneven intervals: two are three semitones and the rest are two semitones: 3 - 2 - 2 - 3 - 2. This does ''not'' sound so odd to Western ears. You can see why if you compare the Eastern, Western and popular intervals in a table: the five-tone scale (called a “pentatonic” scale) is a subset of the western 7 tone scale, just skips the two half-tone steps:
'''Major scale''': ''Do re me'' is a tune set to the major scale, the main musical scale of Western music. <li>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan = "2" | Scale !! colspan= "12" | Semitones
|-
! 01 !! 02 !! 03 !! 04 !! 05 !! 06 !! 07 !! 08 !! 09 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12
|-
| Eastern “whole tone” || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|pink}} || || {{bg|pink}} || || {{bg|pink}} ||
|-
| Western “seven-tone” || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}}
|-
| Western “Pentatonic” || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || ||  || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} ||
|}
But there is something else about that five-tone pentatonic scale. Nudge it along one tone and we can see is the ''inverse'' of the Western seven-note scale and fits into all the gaps between the notes:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan = "2" | Scale !! colspan= "12" | Semitones
|-
! 01 !! 02 !! 03 !! 04 !! 05 !! 06 !! 07 !! 08 !! 09 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12
|-
| Western “seven-tone” || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}} || || {{bg|green}}
|-
| Western “Pentatonic” || →|| {{bg|pink}} || →|| {{bg|pink}} || ||→ || {{bg|pink}} ||→ || {{bg|pink}} || →|| {{bg|pink}} ||
|}
And if we put these together and, say make the “pentatonic” notes black and the “western” ones white, we get, well, a piano keyboard:
{| class="wikitable"
! rowspan = "2" | Scale !! colspan= "12" | Semitones
|-
! 01 !! 02 !! 03 !! 04 !! 05 !! 06 !! 07 !! 08 !! 09 !! 10 !! 11 !! 12
|-
| rowspan = "3" | Western “seven-tone” <br> <br><br>|| style="background: white"  |  || style="background: black" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" |
|-
|  style="background: white" | || style="background: black" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: black" | || style="background: white" |
|-
| style="background: white" | || style="background: white" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" |  || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" | || style="background: white" |
|}</ol><li>
'''Key''': Every song has a “base tone” in the octave — the “key” — which the melody is based around. This is an anchor, and determines which notes sound nice and which do not. So, pick a key.  All of the scales and intervals above revolve around that key.<li>
'''Modes''': Okay now it gets a bit ninja. The western interval is 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1, but it is like one of those choose-your-own adventure books. You can make any of the seven notes your key. Depending on where you start you get a different ''flavour'' of Western music. They have names which are needlessly arcane:
{{L3}}
</ol><li>
''Do re me'' is a tune set to the major scale, the main musical scale of Western music. <li>
'''Why do re me'''? Eleventh-century Italian Guido of Arezzo invented a notational system after the first syllable of each line of the Latin “{{plainlink|https://open.spotify.com/track/1sXoq787SP50CH0ee5Zvxr?|Hymn to St. John the Baptist}}”, each of which started on a successive note of the major scale. A seventh tone, ''ti'' was added later. The eighth note of the “octave” is the first one repeated up one level (which, er, “brings us back to doh”.)</ol><li>
'''Why do re me'''? Eleventh-century Italian Guido of Arezzo invented a notational system after the first syllable of each line of the Latin “{{plainlink|https://open.spotify.com/track/1sXoq787SP50CH0ee5Zvxr?|Hymn to St. John the Baptist}}”, each of which started on a successive note of the major scale. A seventh tone, ''ti'' was added later. The eighth note of the “octave” is the first one repeated up one level (which, er, “brings us back to doh”.)</ol><li>
'''Octaves and frequency''': To raise a note by an octave is double its frequency: at concert pitch, “middle A” (“A0”) is 440Hz. A1 is 880Hz, and so on.
'''Octaves and frequency''': To raise a note by an octave is double its frequency: at concert pitch, “middle A” (“A0”) is 440Hz. A1 is 880Hz, and so on.
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