Chord Colors

A Chromatic scale

357912

About the A Chromatic scale

A Chromatic is used for passing tones, chromatic runs and free, atonal writing. Think of it as all twelve notes, every half step in the octave.

Its notes are A, B, B, C, C, D, D, E, F, F, G, and G. The formula is H H H H H H H H H H H H.

Also called Twelve-Tone Scale.

Learn more about the A Chromatic scale

The open-string notes E, A, D, G, and B all sit inside A Chromatic. The open A string is the lowest A on the neck.

Notes and intervals

1AARoot
2BbB♭Minor 2nd
3BBMajor 2nd
4CCMinor 3rd
5C#C♯Major 3rd
6DDPerfect 4th
7D#D♯Augmented 4th
8EEPerfect 5th
9FFMinor 6th
10F#F♯Major 6th
11GGMinor 7th
12G#G♯Major 7th
StepsH H H H H H H H H H H H
Semitones1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1
Degrees1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 6 6 7 7

Shapes

Chromatic

CC♯D♭DD♯E♭EFF♯G♭GG♯A♭AA♯B♭B

Circle of Fifths

CGDAEBF♯G♭C♯D♭G♯A♭D♯E♭A♯B♭F

Related scales

Chromatic in other keys

Embed this scale

Paste the snippet into a lesson page, a blog or a forum post. The card links back here.

A Chromatic scale on guitar shown as colored note dots
Chord Colors

There's so much more to explore

Explore on the go. Over 150 chord progressions, modal mixture, build your own progressions, and more!

Try web version iOS app
Chord Colors on iPhone showing chords, guitar voicings, progressions, and scales