Scale Wheels

Each scale drawn on the 12-tone clock (12 o'clock = the tonic; one step clockwise = one semitone). The colored dots are the scale degrees, and the number on each edge is the semitone step between consecutive degrees — so the shape shows the scale's character. Left: the Western major scale (C D E F G A B). Right: the Chinese pentatonic 宫商角徵羽 (C D E G A). Press Play to hear each, or play both to compare. Click any dot to hear that note.

Major scale

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti · 7 notes

Chinese pentatonic · 宫商角徵羽

gōng shāng jué zhǐ yǔ · 5 notes

Reading the wheels

The major scale steps go 2·2·1·2·2·2·1 semitones — seven notes with two small (1-semitone) gaps, filling the octave fairly evenly (a seven-sided shape). The 宫-mode (gōng) pentatonic steps go 2·2·3·2·3 — five notes with no semitones at all; the two 3-semitone gaps (where fa and ti would be) give it its open, gapped character (a five-sided shape). Removing those two leading-tone tendencies is a big part of why the pentatonic sounds distinctly Chinese rather than Western. Tonic = C (1=宫); audio is a simple sine synth.