

When practising a contrary motion chromatic scale, you can use the same fingering system I have described and demonstrated above, i.e. Consequently you will find yourself developing your sense of the keyboard by touch and distance more, rather than just relying on a visual awareness of where the keys are. This is because it is much harder to closely watch both hands at the same time when they are moving away from each other. This is very good for developing spacial awareness of the keyboard. A chromatic scale (or any scale) can also be played in contrary motion - this is where both hands start on the same key or very close to the same key and travel outwards away from each other, then back in towards each other. This is known as similar motion in a scale. In the demonstration above, both hands travel in the same direction playing the same notes an octave apart in unison. I have demonstrated two octaves hands together, starting and finishing on D, but you can start a chromatic scale on any note. We can play in one position (using 5 frets).
#CHROMATIC SCALES HOW TO#
How to Play a Chromatic Scale Like any other scale, we can play chromatic scales in different ways on the guitar. In layman’s terms, this means all the notes. When playing two adjacent white keys in the left hand use 2, 1 ascending and 1, 2 descending. Officially, the chromatic scale is a twelve-tone scale starting on a root note and moving by half-steps only. When playing two adjacent white keys in the right hand use 1, 2 whilst ascending and 2, 1 descending. There are a few possible fingering systems that can be used in a chromatic scale, but the most common is as follows: Always use your thumb for a white key and your third finger for a black key, except when you are playing two adjacent white keys. T-shirts, posters, stickers, home decor, and more, designed and sold by independent artists. They help develop control, dexterity and agility of the fingers. High quality Chromatic Scale-inspired gifts and merchandise. When playing a chromatic scale on the piano, you will play every black and white key in between the starting and finishing notes.Ĭhromatic scales are an important contribution to your development of technique. On the piano, a semitone is the distance between two immediately adjacent keys. A semitone is the smallest step you can go from one note to the next.
#CHROMATIC SCALES FREE#
You can also do the opposite, the order of non-chord tones can be reversed, feel free to create you own jazz guitar lines.In a chromatic scale every note is a semitone apart, unlike other scales such as majors and minors where there is a mixture of whole tones and semitones. This technique is widely used in jazz improvisation, it is also called an "enclosure". In this one, chord tones are approached chromatically from above and below. The same major triad whose chord tones are approached chromatically from below.

Please note that chord tones are played on downbeats. In this lick each chord tone is approached chromatically from above that means C is approached by D b, E by F and G by A b. This technique may be used over any type of chord, arpeggio and scale (minor, major, diminished, augmented). In the following example, we will take a C major triad that is made up of a root, major third and perfect fifth (C-E and G). The notes are spaced in a manner so that the are tonally equal from each other. Here are three ways to target a note using chromaticisms. A Chromatic scale is a scale that incorporates 12 tones. Targeting is to approach the chord tones diatonically or chromatically.
