Heptatonic scale are considered subsets of a twelve-pitch scale roughly analogous to the Western chromatic scale. The first and fifth melakarta tones, corresponding to the first and eighth chromatic tones, are invariable in inflection, and the fourth melakarta tone, corresponding to the sixth or seventh chromatic tone, is allowed one of two inflections only, a natural ("shuddah") position and a raised ("tivra") position. The second and third melakarta tones can be picked from the 4 chromatic tones (second through fifth), and similarly for the sixth and seventh. Thus the number of possible forms is equal to twice the square of the number
Diatonic scale six perfect fifths. For instance, the seven natural pitches that form the C-major scale can be obtained from a stack of perfect fifths starting from F: Any sequence of seven successive natural notes, such as C–D–E–F–G–A–B, and any transposition thereof, is a diatonic scale. Modern musical keyboards are designed so that the white notes form a diatonic scale, though transpositions of this diatonic scale require one or more black keys. A diatonic scale can be also described as two tetrachords separated by a whole tone. The term "diatonic" originally referred to the diatonic genus, one of the three genera of