Most of the primitive peoples of the present day do not seem to feel or “hear mentally” the half step.  If musicians of early days had this same failing, it was only natural for them to avoid that interval by eliminating from their songs one or the other of each couplet of tones which if sung would form a half step, thus their chants would be pentatonic.

Not only do people in the primitive state fail to sense the half step, but also people in modern environment who have heard very infrequently this smallest interval of modern music.

Inability to sense this interval may be better understood when we stop to consider that most of us find it unnatural and difficult to hear mentally the still smaller quarter-step interval or one of the even-yet-smaller sub-divisions of the octave which some peoples have come to recognize through cultivation, and have embodied in their music.

This tendency to avoid the half step and develop along the line of pentatonic character is sometimes seen in our own children when they follow their natural bent in singing.  It has been my observation that children with some musical creative ability, but unaccustomed to hearing modern music with its half steps, almost invariably hum their bits of improvised melody in the pentatonic scale.

Major Diatonic Scale.  That scale in which the constituent tones if considered in upward sequence would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,—­(whole) (whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (whole) (half).

Natural Minor Diatonic Scale.  That scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,—­(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (half) (whole) (whole).

Harmonic Minor Diatonic Scale.  That scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of half, whole and whole-and-a-half step intervals,—­(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (half) (whole-and-a-half) (half).

Melodic Minor Diatonic Scale (Ascending).  That scale in which the constituent tones, if considered in upward sequence, would show the following arrangement of whole and half step intervals,—­(whole) (half) (whole) (whole) (whole) (whole) (half).

Falsetto.  Artificial or strained head-tones which sound an octave above the natural tone.  Sign,—­a tiny circle above the note.

In record L. Naway is shown one falsetto tone.  It is unusual to find this effect in a woman’s voice.

Semitones Sung.  This needs no definition.  The classification is put down to show to what extent these singers appreciate the half-step intervals, and are able to vocalize it (see preceeding definition of Pentatonic Scale for footnote relative to appreciation of this interval).  Sign,—­curved bracket above or below the notes.

In these records the men use the half-step interval in six of their seven songs, while the women make use of it in but three of their eight songs.