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.
Yo scale A - B. This is illustrated below. The Ryūkyū scale appears to be derived from the yo scale with pitches raised. More recent theory emphasizes that it is more useful in interpreting Japanese melody to view scales on the basis of "nuclear tones" located a fourth apart and containing notes between them, as in the "min'yō" scale used in folk music, and whose pitches are equivalent to the second mode of the "yo" scale: Yo scale The "yo" scale, which does not contain minor notes, according to a traditional theory is a pentatonic scale used in much Japanese music including