Perfect Fifth

In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is a musical interval encompassing five staff positions (see Interval number for more details), and the perfect fifth (often abbreviated P5) is a fifth spanning seven semitones, or in meantone, four diatonic semitones and three chromatic semitones. For example, the interval from C to G is a perfect fifth, as the note G lies seven semitones above C, and there are five staff positions from C to G. Diminished and augmented fifths span the same number of staff positions, but consist of a different number of semitones (six and eight, respectively).

The perfect fifth may be derived from the harmonic series as the interval between the second and third harmonics. In a diatonic scale, the dominant note is a perfect fifth above the tonic note.

The perfect fifth is more consonant, or stable, than any other interval except the unison and the octave. It occurs above the root of all major and minor chords (triads) and their extensions. Until the late 19th century, it was often referred to by one of its Greek names, diapente. Its inversion is the perfect fourth.