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.
Major scale semitone (i.e. whole, whole, half). The major scale is maximally even. \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f \relative c' { </score> The scale degrees are: \override Score.TimeSignature #'stencil = ##f </score> The triads built on each scale degree follow a distinct pattern. The roman numeral analysis is shown in parentheses. If a piece of music (or part of a piece of music) is in a major key, then the notes "in" the corresponding major scale are considered "diatonic" notes, while the notes "outside" the major scale are considered "chromatic" notes. Moreover, the key signature of the piece of music (or section)