| Main Interval Name: | Diminished sixth |
| Inverse: | augmented third |
| Complement: | augmented third |
| Other Names: | - |
| Abbreviation: | d6 |
| Semitones: | 7 |
| Interval Class: | 5 |
| Just Interval: | 192:125,[1] 32:21,49:32 |
| Cents Equal Temperament: | 700 |
| Cents 24T Equal Temperament: | 700 |
| Cents Just Intonation: | 743 |
In classical music from Western culture, a diminished sixth is an interval produced by narrowing a minor sixth by a chromatic semitone.[2] [3] For example, the interval from A to F is a minor sixth, eight semitones wide, and both the intervals from A to F, and from A to F are diminished sixths, spanning seven semitones. Being diminished, it is considered a dissonant interval,[4] despite being equivalent to an interval known for its consonance.
Its inversion is the augmented third, and its enharmonic equivalent is the perfect fifth.
See main article: Wolf interval.
A severely dissonant diminished sixth is observed when a fixed-pitch instrument limited to twelve notes per octave is tuned using Pythagorean tuning or a meantone temperament with a fifth flatter than 700 cents. Typically, this is the interval between G and E. Since this interval was considered to "howl like a wolf" (because of the beating), and since it sounded like a badly out-of-tune fifth, this interval is called the "wolf" fifth. Notice that a justly tuned fifth is the most consonant interval after the perfect unison and the perfect octave.