For the confused and bewildered:
Looking at the picture of the piano
keyboard (below) notice the
familiar arrangement of the black keys (groups of 3 then 2) The
'missing' black key between E-F and B-C means that the distance
between them is a semitone (half-step) The same distance (in pitch)
as between 'F' and the nearest black key (to the right) or the
distance between 'G' and the nearest black key (to the right or
left) A tone (whole-step) is 2 semitones i.e. the distance between
'C' and 'D' or 'E' and 'F#' (nearest black key to the right of 'F')
The position of the semi-tone intervals in scales determine the
quality of the scale i.e. whether it is major,
minor (natural,
harmonic, melodic) etc. See Key Signatures and
Scales in next
section.|
The fact that on the keyboard notes like C#-Db and D#-Eb have exactly the same pitch is largely due to J.S. Bach's 'well tempered' tuning system. Read wikipedia's information on equal temperament if you are interested. Click the PLAY to hear |
