Chromatic harmonica Chromatic harmonica The chromatic harmonica is a type of harmonica that uses a button-activated sliding bar to redirect air from the hole in the mouthpiece to the selected reed-plate desired. When the button is not pressed, an altered diatonic major scale of the key of the harmonica is available, while depressing the button accesses the same scale a semitone higher in each hole. Thus, the instrument is capable of playing the 12 notes of the Western chromatic scale. The chromatic harmonica can thus be contrasted with a standard harmonica, which can play only the notes in a given musical key.
Blues scale G, B. The latter is the hexatonic scale (top). The heptatonic, or seven-note, conception of the blues scale is as a diatonic scale (a major scale) with lowered third, fifth, and seventh degrees Blues practice is derived from the "conjunction of 'African scales' and the diatonic western scales". \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' { </score> Steven Smith argues that, "to assign blue notes to a 'blues scale' is a momentous mistake, then, after all, unless we alter the meaning of 'scale'". An essentially nine-note blues scale is defined by Benward and Saker as a chromatic variation of the