A very strange question about music theroy...

[drumbumocdp]

for all you musicains out there...

Im writing a paper for a world music class and i need to know what the pitch in between a half step is called. for example. in western music there are only 12 notes in a key. but in music from Indian culture they have 14 or more notes.

would it be called a quarter step or something?

10/10 for help

 

[noscottno711]

quarter tones!

 

[freezed]

they are called microtones

 

[samwise]

I've always heard quarter steps, I've never really done much with them though

 

[Arabian.]

^microtones.

 

[freezed]

quarter tone is a misleading name, because it implies one single note 50 cents above the previous note in the scale (say B), directly between two semitones (B and C in this case), which are 100 cents apart, whereas there are a vast amount of microtones between what we call B and C. microtone is correct.

additionally and separately, when you compare 12 tone equal temperment (the most common "western music" scale) to something like 19, 31, 29, or 53 -tone equal temperment scales you can have semitones in those scales that are a much smaller "jump" than your good-ol-normal-half-step, but technically they are still a semitone, just out of a different temperment.

don't even get me started,

PS, do your own homework!

 

[drumbumocdp]

i was asking a question. your allowed to do that.

 

[b-kul]

mhmm