Need some help

If anyone has the time can someone please explain to me the concept of Semitones, halftones and the like? :glare:

a semi tone is one fret on a guitar, anything smaller than that give Dunael a PM and ask about microtones :P

Well, my knowledge may be crude, but here's a few things which I recall from music class:

Most western music has a 12-note scale, 12 notes per octave. Many times this 12 note scale is known as the chromatic scale. Each note in the 12-note scale forms a semitone/halftone. In music class we called semitones half steps. Two half steps make a whole step. For example, to go from C to C one octave higher using semitones/half steps you would go:

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C

I find it easy to remember semitones by keyboard layout. To step a semitone I hit the next adjacent key whether it be black or white.

A major scale follows this sequence "whole whole half, whole whole whole half." or two whole steps followed by a half step, then three more whole steps and a half step.

This is seen in the C major scale: C D E F G A B C

We skipped two semitones to get to D, so the interval from C to D is a whole step.

You can pretty much figure out the rest, but I hope this is helpful. :P I know there's smaller intervals for non-western music. You can try what Mark suggested for that.

Reference Articles:

Semitone - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So a semitone is half of a half step?

So a semitone is half of a half step?

A semitone and a half step are one and the same. A quarter tone is half a half step.

A semitone and a half step are one and the same. A quarter tone is half a half step.

Aha! Knowledge is gained :)

Thanks :sadtears:

That's the gist of it.