Text: The major scale consists of consecutive tones (half and whole steps) from one letter name to its repetition above or below, such as C D E F G A B C, in which all are whole steps except those from E to F (3 to 4) and B to C (7 to 8) in succession, which are half steps. This is called a "diatonic" scale, because the scale steps follow the letter names in succession without alteration and include five whole steps and two half steps in a definite pattern.

See Also:

Source: 13