Theory of Music Pt II: Keys & Chromatic Scale

This post is a continuation from a previous one, click here for part I.

What Are Keys?

We do not use all 12 notes in every song. Generally, smaller groups of 7 notes can be taken out from the entire set of 12 notes to form a key. The key of the song is therefore the set of notes you use in the song.

One example is all the 7 white notes, which we call “C major”:

The notes of a "C major" key are:

C  D  E  F  G  A  B

Chromatic scale

As we see in the previous post, a scale has 12 notes among which 7 of them use. In music, chromatic scale is the same 12 notes, however, presents semitone intervals between them. 

Chromatic scale on "C": full octave ascending and descending..  Listen

The chromatic scale has a unique format, since it uses the 12 sounds of the western range, so nothing affects (theoretically) change the grades of initiation. 

 C ⇢ C # ⇢ D ⇢ D # ⇢ E ⇢ F ⇢ F # ⇢ G ⇢ G # ⇢ A ⇢ A # ⇢ B

In the case of the scale is descending, it is customary to bemolizar notes: 

 B ⇢ Bb ⇢ A ⇢ Ab ⇢ G ⇢ Gb ⇢ F ⇢ E ⇢ Eb ⇢ D ⇢ Db ⇢ C 

To understand the chromatic scale, we get the standard C major scale and insert the five existing sounds between the notes that have among themselves the interval of a tone. On the guitar, just follow melodically house by house (semitone by semitone) up to 12 notes, from the scale that will be repeated. On the piano, played all keys (white and black, without skipping any) melodically.

Writem by Шilly Λugusto on ĐШGUITΛR.

(Snippets of text Adapted from guitarpraise.blogspot.com | Wikipedia  - All rights reserveds.)