Is true to say in which scales or tonality
I was wondering when we want to ask someone about a piece of music , I could say what the scale of that music is or the tonality of that.
Which one is true
2 Comments
Sorted by latest first Latest Oldest Best
Maybe think of it with an analogy.
A painter's palette has lots of mixed colors but un-arranged on the palette in no particular order.
Put the colors in a specific order on the canvas and you get the gradations of a sunset or a rainbow.
When talking about a picture's palette it refers to the un-arranged colors of the palette. Like a monochrome palette.
In music a tonality is like a painter's palette. It's a set of notes in no particular order.
If all those tones are put in a particular order - a step wise order for a full octave - you have a scale. It's a particular melodic treatment of the tones in a tonality.
In music you say a composition is in a tonality. That's the music palette.
Key is a specific kind of tonality using the major/minor system. You can have other tonalities beside the major/minor system. Blues and modal are two common types. So, music could be in tonalities like the key of D minor or a blues in B flat or a folk tune in C Mixolydian.
As a hierarchy...
Tonal music: the music has some tonal center
Specific tonality: key, mode, etc. the palette of tones
scales may or may not be a melodic feature used in the music
Tonality is the key of a piece. It has a bit to do with scale notes, but that's all.
There are often times in any piece where diatonic notes won't do the job, so talking in terms of a 'scale' is pointless.
Saying somethng is in, say, C major, doesn't automatically mean that the only notes in there will be C D E F G A and B. Music doesn't work like that.
We learn initially that it actually does, but that's to simplify things for beginners. Unfortunately, that piece of info. seems to stick - which is where we are here.
Terms of Use Privacy policy Contact About Cancellation policy © freshhoot.com2026 All Rights reserved.