# Is there anything universally special about the notes on the musical scale?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Tags:** music\
**Created:** [June 15, 2022, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199 "2022-06-15T00:17:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [June 16, 2022, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199/21 "2022-06-16T22:59:48Z")

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> [@74westy](#):
>
> That must be why D minor is the saddest of keys.

No, that’s due to non-equal temperament. If you start by tuning your piano, say, to some particular temperament for C major, and then play a scale in some other key, it won’t just be a transposition of the C-major scale. It’ll be close, but the ratios will be slightly different, and that can affect the “mood” of a piece, in the same way but more subtly that major vs. minor affects the mood. In some particular temperament system that was popular in the past, then, there was a consensus that D minor sounded particularly sad.

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [June 17, 2022, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199/22 "2022-06-17T01:08:26Z")

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[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/H7vk5keNbRc/hqdefault.jpg ""Lick My Love Pump" Scene from This Is Spinal Tap (1984)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7vk5keNbRc)

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**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199/23 "2022-06-19T02:03:17Z")

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I know basically nothing about this topic, but, just to make sure it’s not even more insane than I thought… it is the case that an octave is an octave is an octave, right? And the perfect-er the better? And they are I assume used and appreciated across different musical traditions?

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**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\
**Post date:** [June 19, 2022, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-universally-special-about-the-notes-on-the-musical-scale/966199/24 "2022-06-19T10:16:51Z")

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Yes and no.

The 2/1 frequency ratio is fairly universal and used by musicians, since notes that far apart sound “the same”, and because the second harmonic of a compound tone will be an octave higher than the fundamental. [Not that you can’t get creative and experiment with other intervals: e.g. [this guy](http://www.sfoxclarinets.com/BP_sale.htm) is selling clarinets with a scale based on twelfths]

Dividing that interval into a seven-note diatonic scale is not universal, though.

“The perfecter the better” is not really true; it depends on the instrument. The overtones have to match up. For example, here is a typical piano tuning, showing that the octaves have to be “stretched” rather than perfect in order to sound good:  
[![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Railsback2.png) ](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/Railsback2.png)

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