Re: [Harp-L] Timeline: musical scale

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

The major scale was described clearly in Babylonian clay tablets several thousand years ago.ÂFractional intervals have been known since at least the ancient Greeks.

Pentatonic to septatonic (7 tones, not 8; you don't count the octave note - if you did pentatonic would be sexatonic and the chromatic scale would have 13 tones) to 12-tone chromatic may seem like a logical progression, but that does not automatically mean that it has a historical basis.
WinslowÂWinslow Yerxa
President, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Producer, theÂHarmonica Collective
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
ÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂÂ Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Expert, bluesharmonica.comInstructor, JazzschoolÂCommunity Music School
      From: Robert Hale <robert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx> 
 Sent: Friday, December 19, 2014 1:42 PM
 Subject: [Harp-L] Timeline: musical scale
   
Is it generally agreed that the earliest musical scale was pentatonic 5
tones, evolved to 8 tones, then 12?
Where and when did 1/4 tone scales emerge in the musical time line?
(Arabic, East Indian)

Robert Hale
Serious Honkage in Arizona
youtube.com/DUKEofWAIL
DUKEofWAIL.com