Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Major scale   /mˈeɪdʒər skeɪl/   Listen
noun
Major  n.  
1.
Greater in number, quantity, or extent; as, the major part of the assembly; the major part of the revenue; the major part of the territory.
2.
Of greater dignity; more important.
3.
Of full legal age; adult. (Obs.)
4.
(Mus.) Greater by a semitone, either in interval or in difference of pitch from another tone.
Major key (Mus.), a key in which one and two, two and three, four and five, five and six and seven, make major seconds, and three and four, and seven and eight, make minor seconds.
Major offense (Law), an offense of a greater degree which contains a lesser offense, as murder and robbery include assault.
Major scale (Mus.), the natural diatonic scale, which has semitones between the third and fourth, and seventh and fourth, and seventh and eighth degrees; the scale of the major mode, of which the third is major. See Scale, and Diatonic.
Major second (Mus.), a second between whose tones is a difference in pitch of a step.
Major sixth (Mus.), a sixth of four steps and a half step. In major keys the third and sixth from the key tone are major. Major keys and intervals, as distinguished from minors, are more cheerful.
Major third (Mus.), a third of two steps.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Major scale" Quotes from Famous Books



... they have all more or less recognized the octave as the natural limit of the series. The difference among the various scales has been in the selection of intervals between the scale-tones, and, consequently, in the number of tones within the octave. Thus e.g., in our major scale the intervals between the tones are all whole-steps except two (which are half-steps), and the result is a scale of eight tones (including in this number both the key-tone and its octave): but in the so-called pentatonic scale of the Chinese ...
— Music Notation and Terminology • Karl W. Gehrkens



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org