Types Of Scales Scales may be described according to the intervals they contain: for example: diatonic, chromatic, whole tone or by the number of different pitch classes they contain: Octatonic (8 tones per octave): used in jazz and modern classical music Heptatonic (7 tones per octave): the most common modern Western scale Hexatonic (6 tones per octave): common in Western folk music Pentatonic (5 tones per octave): common in folk music, especially in oriental music; also known as the "black note" scale Tetratonic (4 tones), tritonic (3 tones), ditonic (2 tones): generally limited to prehistoric ("primitive") music Monotonic (1 tone): limited use in liturgy, or for effect in modern art music "The number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound quality. "The pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of the music than does the mere number of tones."

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