Major seventh the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones (nine and twelve). The easiest way to locate and identify the major seventh is from the octave rather than the unison, and it is suggested that one sings the octave first. For example, the most commonly cited example of a melody featuring a major seventh is the tonic-octave-major seventh of the opening to "(Somewhere) Over the Rainbow". "Not many songwriters begin a melody with a major seventh interval; perhaps that's why there are few memorable examples." However, two songs provide exceptions to this generalisation: Cole Porter's
Short octave "C/E", meaning that the lowest note is a C, played on a key that normally would sound E. A second type of short octave used the keys to play the G major scale Here, the exotic bass notes C and D are sacrificed to obtain the more essential A and B. The notation for the pitch range of such an instrument is "G/B". The following diagram illustrates this kind of short octave: In stringed instruments like the harpsichord, the short octave system created a defect: the strings which were tuned to mismatch their keyboard notes were in general too short