A five-note scale is commonly called which?

• A. Chromatic scale
• B. Whole-tone scale
• C. Pentatonic scale
• D. Diatonic scale

Answer: (C)

A five-note scale is called a pentatonic scale. The name comes from penta- meaning five and -tonic referring to tones. In practice, a pentatonic scale has five distinct notes within an octave. A common example in C is C–D–E–G–A, which skips two notes from the standard major scale (F and B) to keep to five pitches.

This differs from other scales: a chromatic scale includes every semitone across the octave (twelve notes), a whole-tone scale uses only whole-step intervals (six notes, evenly spaced), and a diatonic scale has seven notes (as in major or natural minor). Since the question specifies five notes, pentatonic is the correct term.