Is there any difference between the ancient pentatonic scale and the modern seven tones?

1. Different syllables

The pentatonic scale is Gong, Shang, Horn, Chant, Feather, and if arranged in pitch order, it is: 1, 2, 3, 5, 6.

The heptatonic scale is Gong, Shang, Horn, Variable Chant, Chant, Feather, and Variable Gong, and if arranged in pitch order, it is: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.

2. Different tuning modes

The national tuning of the pentatonic scale is: Gong, Shang, Horn, Levy and Feather.

The national tunings of the seven-tone scale are: Ching-Le-Tune, Ya-Le-Tune and Yan-Le-Tune.

Expanded Information:

.

Ancient Chinese rhythms were also divided into twelve semitones, the names of which were Huang Zhong (黄钟), Da Lu (大吕), Tai Lu (太簇), Jie Zhong (夹钟), Gushui (姑洗), Zhong Lu (仲吕), Lei Bin (蕤宾), Lin Zhong (林鐘), Yizhe (夷则), Nan Lu (南吕), Wu Shou (无射), and Ying Zhong (应钟). It was created according to the five degrees of phasing method. Later in the Ming Dynasty, the twelve equalizing laws were created.

These twelve names are also the names of the tones used by the ancients, with a fixed pitch. The pitch of the first law, the Yellow Bell, is equivalent to the f1 of the current international common meter.

The ancient timbrels were twelve bamboo tubes of a specified length. The length of one of the yellow bells was about 25.36 centimeters. This length was also the unit of length in ancient times, which was called "xia zhi".

Because there is no fixed pitch for the Gong, Shang, Jiao, Zheng and Yu, there are twelve different heights for the various ethnic scales. However, modern people are not used to the language of "Huang Zhong Gong" and "Da Lu Gong". Therefore, in the description of the scale heights to take a combination of foreign and local ways, that is, "C Gong tuning", "D Gong tuning".

The intervals of Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng and Feather are equivalent to the intervals of 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6. When notated in simple notation, it can also be notated as 4, 5, 6, 1, 2 (the first three tones are basses, which are written as altoes because of the inability to add a bass point here.

Because they all conform to the intervals of Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng and Feather. However, due to the principle of "the palace tone is always present" in the Chinese national tuning, and the habit of giving priority to 1,2,3,5,6 (habit is rule), the textbook only talks about the equivalent of 1,2,3,5,6, which is in line with the custom and the rules of Chinese music theory.

References:

.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Chinese Ethnic Tuning