Whole – Whole – Half – Whole – Whole – Whole – HalfĬhoosing any starting note on a piano and playing this sequence will give you a major scale.The major scale arranges the whole and half steps of a diatonic scale in a particular order to give it its tonality. The former subdivides the chromatic scale into 7-note chunks of 5 whole steps and 2 half steps. To summarize diatonic vs chromatic, the latter contains all 12 notes in western music separated by semitones. This graphic illustrates both the diatonic C major scale (bolded notes) and the chromatic scale (all 12 notes). You may also be familiar with the harmonic and melodic minor scales, which do not meet the criteria for a diatonic scale (all of their half steps are not separated by at least two whole steps). The two most common diatonic scales in music are the major and natural minor scale. That is to say, if you played any 7 white keys in sequence, it would be diatonic by definition. Any sequence of 7 natural notes on a piano, such as F to F, G to G, B to B, etc. To be considered diatonic, each half step in the scale must also be separated by at least two whole steps. ![]() What is a diatonic scale?Ī diatonic scale is a 7-note scale containing 5 whole steps and 2 half steps. The majority of western music utilizes some sort of subset of the chromatic scale, most frequently being a diatonic scale. It may start on any tonic (root note), but must ascend or descend all 12 pitches in semitone increments. C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G# – A – A# – Bīy definition, there is only one chromatic scale.If you played the chromatic scale on a piano starting on C, it would look like this: ![]() The chromatic scale is the complete set of 12 notes played in sequence with half steps (also called semitones) between each note. Every note except B and E has a sharp after it, e.g., A#, C#, D#, etc. In western music, there are twelve available pitches from A to G. The basic definitions of diatonic vs chromatic are pretty easy to understand, but like most music theory lingo, it sounds scarier than it is! The diatonic and chromatic scales together actually form the foundation for most of western music.
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