Chinese musicology

Chinese musicology is the academic study of traditional Chinese music. This discipline has a very long history.

Music scales

The ancient Chinese defined, by mathematical means, a gamut or series of Shi Er Lü from which various sets of five or seven frequencies were selected to make the sort of "do re mi" major familiar to those who have been formed with the . The 12 lü approximate the frequencies known in the West as A, B flat.....G, and A flat.

Scale and tonality

Most Chinese music uses a pentatonic scale, with the intervals the same as those of the major pentatonic scale. The notes of this scale are called gong, shang, jue, zhi, and yu. By starting from a different point of this sequence, a scale with a different interval sequence is created, similar to the construction of in modern Western music.

Since the Chinese system is not an equal tempered tuning, playing a melody starting from the lǜ nearest to A will not necessarily sound the same as playing the same melody starting from some other lǜ, since the wolf interval will occupy a different point in the scale. The effect of changing the starting point of a song can be rather like the effect of shifting from a to a minor key in Western music.