Chromatic scale Chromatic scale The chromatic scale is a musical scale with twelve pitches, each a semitone above or below its adjacent pitches. As a result, in 12-tone equal temperament (the most common temperament in Western music), the chromatic scale covers all 12 of the available pitches. Thus, there is only one chromatic scale. Moreover, in equal temperament, all the semitones have the same size (100 cents). As a result, the notes of an equal-tempered chromatic scale are equally-spaced. This makes the chromatic scale a nondiatonic scale with no tonic because of the symmetry of its equally-spaced notes. The ascending and descending
Scale (music) the 20th century, additional types of scales were explored: A large variety of other scales exists, some of the more common being: Scales such as the pentatonic scale may be considered "gapped" relative to the diatonic scale. An "auxiliary scale" is a scale other than the primary or original scale. See: modulation (music) and Auxiliary diminished scale. In many musical circumstances, a specific note of the scale is chosen as the tonic—the central and most stable note of the scale. In Western tonal music, simple songs or pieces typically start and end on the tonic note. Relative to a choice