Chromatic scale on piano

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.

Thumb on white, third on black

The standard chromatic fingering puts the 3rd finger on every black key and the thumb on every white key, except where two white keys sit together (E–F and B–C), where the 2nd finger takes the second one in the right hand going up. The thumb stays close to the black keys so the hand doesn't bounce.

More scales

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

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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