In a musical world where sharps and flats reign supreme, the Whole-Tone Scale boldly goes off the beaten path. Forget the usual twelve-note drama; this scale breaks it down to six evenly spaced whole tones, creating a surreal, enigmatic sound that makes you feel delightfully unanchored.

Pioneered in the 19th century by Hungarian piano virtuoso Franz Liszt and Russian composers like Mikhail Glinka and Aleksandr Borodin, this scale defies traditional tonal hierarchy - hence the floaty, dreamlike sensation it creates. Later embraced by avant-garde composers like Debussy and Stravinsky, the whole-tone scale introduced an otherworldly dimension to their works.

But it isn't restricted to classical music. You can hear the whole-tone scale pop up in Stevie Wonder's 1972 hit "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," specifically in bars two and four of the opening.