Welcome to LivingPianos.com, I’m Robert Estrin. I’m here today with an interesting question. What are there 2, 3, and 4 of in music? Those of you who are music theory aficionados might want to stop right now and see if you can figure out what the heck I’m talking about. I could actually start with what there is only one of!
What is there 1 of?
There is only one chromatic scale. It doesn’t matter where you start or stop. It’s all the same because you are just moving up by half-steps.
What are there 2 of?
There are, believe it or not, only two different whole-tone scales. Play a whole-tone scale starting on C. Then, go up a half-step, and you have another one. But go up one more half-step, and you’re back to the first one again! So I think you see where I’m going with this.
What are there 3 of?
There are only three different diminished seventh chords. What’s a diminished seventh chord? A diminished seventh chord is a chord built all with minor thirds. That is three half-steps apart. So we build the first one, starting on C. Three half-steps up is D-sharp, then F-sharp, then A. That’s your diminished seventh chord. Move that chord up a half-step, and you have another one. That’s the second one. Move another half-step, that’s the third one. But if you move up another half-step, you’re back to that first one again. So there’s one chromatic scale, two whole-tone scales, and three diminished seventh chords. You probably see the pattern here.
What are there 4 of?
There are only four different augmented triads. Augmented triads are chords containing two major thirds. Major thirds are a total of four half-steps. Starting on C, move up four half-steps to E, then G-sharp. That’s an augmented triad. Move that up by half-steps, you have the second, third, and fourth one. If you move up one more time, you are back to the first one. These are interesting patterns. Did you ever realize this before? The one, two, three, and four of music is what it’s all about. I wonder if anybody else has any observations on how we could go further. If you have any way of going further with this, let us know in the comments here on LivingPianos.com and on YouTube! Thanks again for joining me, Robert Estrin, here at LivingPianos.com, Your Online Piano Resource.
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10 thoughts on “What Are There 2, 3, & 4 of in Music?”
Dec. 4, 2023
Hi Robert,
I knew about “what are there only 3 of,” because my organ teacher taught me that among those three diminished seventh chords is the quickest way to go from one key to another.
Charles in Albuquerque
That was the one that inspired the video!
How about scales: major, three forms of minor? You mentioned chromatic. I would say 7 chromatic scales, depending on what note you start on Or pentatonic, blues and modes? Yikes! Haha. What a project!
There are actually 12 each of major, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. A chromatic scale is all half-steps. So it there is only one chromatic scale since the notes are all the same no matter where you start!
also, there are only 3 unique octatonic scales…
These are great, super helpful. Sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees, and sometimes experts forget that students don’t yet see the forest. Sometimes it’s good to make them struggle with it; sometimes not so good.
Hopefully, an understanding of theory enhances students’ appreciation for music.
It does. And in a very long piece, eg. Liszt sonata in b minor, writing out the key changes makes learning to play it a lot faster as a practical matter.
Most important is to be aware of the transition to the second subject in the exposition and the recapitulation so you don’t leave out half the piece, or end up in an endless loop!
I did learn somethong today!
Many thanks Robert