Octatonic scale scale" . The twelve tones of the chromatic scale are covered by three disjoint diminished seventh chords. The notes from two such seventh-chords combination form an octatonic collection. Because there are three ways to select two from three, there are three octatonic scales in the twelve-tone system. Each octatonic scale has exactly two modes: the first begins its ascent with a whole step, while the second begins its ascent with a half step (semitone). These modes are sometimes referred to as the "whole step/half-step diminished scale" and the "half-step/whole step diminished scale", respectively. Each of the three distinct scales can
Scale (music) the bracket indicating that the last note is an octave higher than the first note, and the decreasing C major scale is C–B–A–G–F–E–D–[C], with the bracket indicating an octave lower than the first note in the scale. The distance between two successive notes in a scale is called a scale step. The notes of a scale are numbered by their steps from the root of the scale. For example, in a C major scale the first note is C, the second D, the third E and so on. Two notes can also be numbered in relation to each other: C