A variety of musical scales are used in traditional

Japanese music In Japan, music includes a wide array of distinct genres, both traditional and modern. The word for "music" in Japanese is 音楽 (''ongaku''), combining the kanji 音 ''on'' (sound) with the kanji 楽 ''gaku'' (music, comfort). Japan is the wo ...

. While a twelve-tone ( dodecatonic) Chinese scale has influenced Japanese music since the

Heian period The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. It followed the Nara period, beginning when the 50th emperor, Emperor Kanmu, moved the capital of Japan to Heian-kyō (modern Kyoto). means "peace" in Japanese ...

, in practice Japanese traditional music is often based on

pentatonic A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to the heptatonic scale, which has seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many anci ...

(five tone) or

heptatonic A heptatonic scale is a musical scale that has seven pitches, or tones, per octave. Examples include the major scale or minor scale; e.g., in C major: C D E F G A B C—and in the relative minor, A minor, natural minor: A B C D E F G A; the mel ...

(seven tone) scales. In some instances,

harmonic minor In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

is used, while the

melodic minor In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

is virtually unused.

Pentatonic scales

Japanese mode The Japanese mode is a pentatonic musical scale commonly used in traditional Japanese music. The intervals of the scale are major second, minor third, perfect fifth and minor sixth (such as the notes A, B, C, E, F and up to A :ja:ヨナ抜き音階 ...

: a pentatonic musical scale with the intervals of the scale a major second, minor second, major third, minor second, and major third *

Akebono scale The Akebono scale is a musical scale commonly used in traditional Japanese music. Akebono and the Diatonic scale use the same intervals, but Akebono has no fixed tonic; as such, any Akebono note can be the tonic. The 1891 ''Transactions of the A ...

Hirajōshi scale ''Hirajōshi'' scale, or is a tuning scale adapted from shamisen music by Yatsuhashi Kengyō for tuning of the ''koto''. "The ''hirajoshi'', ''kumoijoshi'', and ''kokinjoshi'' 'scales' are Western derivations of the koto tunings of the same ...

In scale The ''in'' scale (also known as the ''Sakura'' pentatonic scale due to its use in the well-known folk song '' Sakura Sakura'') is, according to a traditional theory, one of two pentatonic scales used in much Japanese music, excluding ''gagaku'' and ...

* Insen scale * Iwato scale * Ritsu and ryo scales *

Yo scale The ''yo'' scale, which is like the Mixolydian but does not contain minor notes, according to a traditional theory is a pentatonic scale used in much Japanese music including gagaku and shomyo. The ''yo'' scale is used specifically in folk songs an ...

References

Musical scales Japanese music {{japan-music-stub

Pentatonic scales

Further reading

References