The diatonic bell is a graphical representation of musical modes and scales. This systematic catalogue highlights the following relationships among modes:

The Diatonic Bell

The 66 scales are ordered according to their distance from the diatonic scale, the most familiar modes being concentrated around the former.

The 462 heptatonic modes are grouped into 31 classes, ordered from the “brightest” to the “darkest”. Browse through more than 5000 audio examples in MIDI file format.

Pierre Audétat developed this construction in 2006 in order to investigate the heptatonic modes of the equal temperament. It has since then been generalised to a wider set of temperaments. Microtonal and macrotonal bells are avaialble as well.

Familiar modes

Show map of familiar heptatonic modes.

Pentatonic modes

Show map of pentatonic modes.

Microtonal modes

Show atlas of microtonal modes.