Chromatic scale common conception of the chromatic scale before the 13th century was the Pythagorean chromatic scale (). Due to a different tuning technique, the twelve semitones in this scale have two slightly different sizes. Thus, the scale is not perfectly symmetric. Many other tuning systems, developed in the ensuing centuries, share a similar asymmetry. In Pythagorean tuning (3-limit just intonation) the chromatic scale is tuned as follows, with sharps higher than their enharmonic flats: These are 17-EDO Pythagorean tuning approximations. In 5-limit just intonation the chromatic scale, Ptolemy's intense chromatic scale, is as follows, with flats higher than their enharmonic sharps,
Acoustic scale major sixth (D and A). Lendvai described the use of the "acoustic system" accompanying the acoustic scale in Bartók's music, since it entails structural characteristics such as symmetrically balanced sections, especially periods, is contrasted with his use of the golden section. In Bartók's music, the acoustic scale is characterized in various ways including diatonic, dynamic, tense, and triple- or other odd-metered, as opposed to the music structured by the Fibonacci sequence which is chromatic, static, relaxed, and duple-metered. Another way to regard the acoustic scale is that it occurs as a mode of the melodic minor scale, starting on the