(a) Music a series or scale of eleven notes; (b) (in ancient Greece) a musical instrument having eleven strings.

A system or scale-series of five notes. Cf. tetrachord, n. 2a.

a pentatonic scale in which the fourth and seventh are omitted from the ordinary major scale, characteristic of traditional Scottish music (though…

A melodic mode used as a basis for improvisation or composition in Persian, Arabic, and Turkish music.

The heptatonic scale used in Javanese (esp. gamelan) music, and also in Sundanese music.

Acoustics and Music. Applied to the tones produced by the vibration of a sonorous body in aliquot parts of its length (see sense B. 2); relating to…

a scale which divides the octave into six equal steps, each a whole tone apart.

A pentatonic scale.

Acoustics and Music. Applied to the tones produced by the vibration of a sonorous body in aliquot parts of its length (see sense B. 2); relating to…

any of various scales commonly used in the blues, esp. a major scale with the imposition of one or more blue notes.