Western music contains 12 notes consisting of semi-tones (half-steps.) The chromatic scale is all 12 of these notes played in succession. The entire scale consists of half-steps (the equivalent of moving up one fret on the guitar.) Chromaticism is often heard in jazz improvisation when notes outside of a given key are played as half-step "passing tones" between diatonic notes.
A sequence of half-steps derived from the chromatic scale, which consists of all 12 notes found in Western music
![Sam Blakelock avatar](https://static.intercomassets.com/avatars/3822831/square_128/Sam-profile-1696895723.jpeg)
Written by Sam Blakelock
Updated over a week ago