Chord Colors

A Whole Tone scale
PianoGuitar

About the A Whole Tone scale

A Whole Tone is used for dream sequences, impressionist music and solos over dominant chords. Think of it as a scale of nothing but whole steps, floating with no clear home. It is A Prometheus with the sixth lowered.

Its notes are A, B, C♯, D♯, F, and G. The formula is W W W W W W.

Also called Auxiliary Augmented and Messiaen Mode 1.

Learn more about the A Whole Tone scale

Two of the notes in A Whole Tone are black keys, C♯ and D♯.

Notes and intervals

1AARoot
2BBMajor 2nd
3C#C♯Major 3rd
4D#D♯Augmented 4th
5FFMinor 6th
6GGMinor 7th
StepsW W W W W W
Semitones2-2-2-2-2-2
Degrees1 2 3 ♯4 ♭6 ♭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

Whole Tone in other keys

C Whole Tone scaleD flat Whole Tone scaleD Whole Tone scaleE flat Whole Tone scaleE Whole Tone scaleF Whole Tone scaleG flat Whole Tone scaleG Whole Tone scaleA flat Whole Tone scaleB flat Whole Tone scaleB Whole Tone scale

Embed this scale

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

A Whole Tone scale on piano 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