Chord Colors

A♯ Whole Tone scale
PianoGuitar

About the A sharp Whole Tone scale

A sharp 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♯, D, E, 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

A♯ Whole Tone uses three black keys on the piano, A♯, F♯, and G♯. That raised fourth spells out to the white key E.

Notes and intervals

1A#A♯Root
2B#B♯Major 2nd
3DDMajor 3rd
4EEAugmented 4th
5F#F♯Minor 6th
6G#G♯Minor 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 scaleC sharp Whole Tone scaleD Whole Tone scaleD sharp Whole Tone scaleE Whole Tone scaleF Whole Tone scaleF sharp Whole Tone scaleG Whole Tone scaleG sharp Whole Tone scaleA 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.

Bb 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