What does chromatic scale mean in music?

Theory & harmony

Chromatic scale

Greek chroma, "colour"

A chromatic scale is a scale made entirely of semitones, using all twelve pitches within an octave rather than the seven of a major or minor scale.

Because it uses every available pitch, a chromatic scale has no key: it sounds the same starting anywhere, which is precisely why composers use it for tension, transition, and the absence of a harmonic home.

On a string instrument it is fingered differently going up and coming down in many systems, and the standard exercise is to slide one finger between adjacent semitones rather than to place a new finger for each, a technique that trains both intonation and small-scale shifting at once.

Written chromatic passages usually use sharps ascending and flats descending, which is a notation convention about direction rather than a claim that the pitches differ.

Scale: A scale is an ordered sequence of pitches spanning an octave, defined by its specific pattern of whole and half steps.
Enharmonic: Two notes are enharmonic when they sound the same pitch but are written differently, such as F sharp and G flat.
Interval: An interval is the distance between two pitches, named by the number of staff steps it spans and qualified as perfect, major, minor, augmented, or diminished.
Accidental: An accidental is a sharp, flat, or natural sign placed before a note to raise, lower, or restore its pitch for the remainder of that bar.

Every term in this glossary is taught in context somewhere in Arco's curricula, on the staff, on the keyboard, and on your own fingerboard at the same time.

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