What is a Whole Tone Harmony?

Whole tone harmony refers to harmony built from the whole tone scale, a scale made entirely of whole-step intervals between each note. Because the scale contains no half steps, it produces a smooth, floating sound that lacks the strong tension and resolution found in traditional tonal harmony.

The whole tone scale contains six notes, such as C–D–E–F♯–G♯–A♯. Chords built from this scale often include augmented triads and dominant chords with raised fifths. These chords tend to sound ambiguous because the scale does not clearly establish a tonal center.

Whole tone harmony became especially prominent in late Romantic and Impressionist music, particularly in the works of composers like Claude Debussy. It is also used in jazz and film music to create dreamy, mysterious, or surreal harmonic textures. Because the scale is symmetrical, whole tone harmony often produces a sense of suspended motion rather than traditional harmonic resolution.