Chromatic scale

The notes of the C chromatic scale

C C♯ D D♯ E F F♯ G G♯ A A♯ B

Formula: 1 ♭2 2 ♭3 3 4 ♯4 5 ♭6 6 ♭7 7. Steps from note to note: 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 semitones (half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half, half).

All twelve notes, every step a half step. Up it is usually written in sharps, down in flats.

The C chromatic scale on the piano

White keys: C D E F G A B; black keys: C♯ D♯ F♯ G♯ A♯.

For the fingering, slide the thumb under after the black keys, never onto one.

The twelve notes and their two names

What it is for

No song is written in the chromatic scale; it is the ruler the other scales are cut from. Players practise it to even out their fingers (one finger per fret on guitar, the 1-3 fingering on piano with the thumb on every white key next to a black one) and to learn every note's name. Composers use runs of it for tension, from the flight of the bumblebee to film-score chase scenes.

More scales

Chromatic scale on trumpet Chromatic scale on guitar Chromatic scale on piano Major scale Minor scale Pentatonic scale

How this page works

Hear it plays the scale up and down at 100 BPM on one of four Brumm sounds. Take it gives the same notes as a MIDI file and a WAV. − and + move the root. Every note here is computed from the formula.

Sources

Scales and modes: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Piano fingerings: the standard scale-book fingerings (ABRSM scale books; Hanon, The Virtuoso Pianist, part 3). Trumpet valves: the standard B♭ trumpet fingering chart (Yamaha, Bach). Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

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