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Tonal is an adjective with several related meanings, all tied to the notion of tone, pitch, or shading, depending on context. In music, it describes a style or system organized around a tonal center and a hierarchy of pitches. In linguistics, it refers to languages that use pitch differences to distinguish words. In the arts and everyday language, tonal can also relate to color tone or timbre.
In music, tonal music centers on a key, where pitches are organized into scales (most often major
In linguistics, tonal languages use pitch patterns (tones) that are phonemic, meaning a syllable’s pitch can
In acoustics and perception, a tonal sound is one that has a definite pitch as opposed to