A chromatic scale is a music scale that has twelve pitches and also has a semitone and a half step that are placed apart. The opposite of a chromatic scale is a diatonic scale whose characteristics differ with the chromatic scale characteristics completely hence the chromatic scale is also called a non-diatonic scale. The word ‘chroma’ means color thus the chromatic scale shows an assortment of the 12 notes that makes it colorful. All the other scales and chords in western music were derived from the chromatic scale and due to this reason, they derive most of the characteristics from it but they deviate to avoid closeness in meaning.
The piano is a good example of a chromatic scale. When the piano is played following the black and the white keys, in both ascending and descending order, the series of the 12 notes makes a complete chromatic scale. A chromatic scale is mainly used when playing a guitar. Each fret on the guitar has a note on the chromatic scale that represents it. A fret is usually half a step on the chromatic scale and two frets make a full step. When one plays all the frets on a guitar up to the neck, the half steps join and by the time one is playing the 12th fret on the chromatic scale, they have reached the same note they started with but this time the note is usually an octave higher.
The chromatic scale incorporates the enharmonic keys that are the black keys that are denoted the same as the preceding keys but have a sharp or a flat sign that makes the difference. The enharmonic keys produce the same sound though they are named differently. The octave is used to make the boundaries for different pitches on the chromatic scale thus we talk of a higher octave and a lower octave after moving 12 notes up or down the scale respectively. The octave though, was defined in earlier times when the octave was made of eight notes but with developments and changes in the music field, the octave was changed to mean 12 notes.
A chromatic scale can either be harmonic, melodic, ascending or descending. The harmonic chromatic scale is the scale whose set remain the same when played whether one is playing the ascending scale or the descending scale and it does not pay regards to the key signature. It includes notes from the major and the minor scales and it adds a flat second degree and a sharpened 4th degree fro the starting note. It has every degree on the scale repeated while writing apart from the starting note which is the key note and the 5th note.
The melodic chromatic scale has no preset form of play and it is based on the majors, the minor scale key signatures, and the order of play whether ascending or descending.
