. A half step is the smallest distance between 2 notes in Western music. From the first note to the last note, you simply move up the scale in semitones, as every single note is one half-step away from the note before it. Chromatic scale. Chromatic Scale Piano How To Play a Chromatic Scale on the Piano. The Chromatic Scale. Hello Chromatic scales require a lot of finger turnovers between your thumb and other fingers. So, on the piano, a half step from any given note is the very next note, whether it is black or white. notation. This scale involves all 12 notes of the western musical scale. To play chromatic scales on a piano keyboard, you must play all the white keys and all the black keys in order, one after another. Use the Chromatic Scale between chords. Each note has to be equally the same in emphasis and volume. . Another popular scale is the chromatic scale. All you have to do is learn the correct fingering for both hands and apply to four octaves, up and back. Three octaves of the chromatic scale are shown in Table 2.2a using the A, B, C, . There is only one chromatic scale, regardless of where you start or where you end up on the piano keyboard. The chromatic scale is arguably one of the easiest scales to understand, particularly on piano. This is because you simply go from one key to the other without skipping any. A chromatic scale is a series of 12 half steps up and 12 half steps down. Use the Chromatic Scale for a melody. Unfortunately, many people practice scales without a clear understanding of what they’re trying to accomplish. The last three intervals of a melodic minor scale are the same as the last three intervals as a major scale, going up anyway. Here is another, more melodic, example: This short melody line shows how a bass walk made by adding chromatic notes (F# in the second bar and D in the third bar) can be constructed. Using chromatic notes between chords are a common approach, not at least in jazz. This scale consists of 12 notes, each a half step (semitone) apart. Black keys on the piano are shown as sharps, e.g. the # on the right of C represents C#, etc., and are shown only for the highest octave. The chromatic scale is comprised of all twelve notes of an octave. Going down, this scale is the same as the natural minor scale. ... piano, drums, and music theory. Remember chromatic scales are just like any scale. Each successive frequency change in the chromatic scale is called a semitone and an octave has 12 semitones. Practicing scales is important for several reasons, but if you don’t know those reasons, you might find it difficult to translate those hours of practice into something musical.