The Chromatic Scale
Using sharps you can now play five new notes, which occur between the seven natural notes you already know. The following exercise uses all twelve notes which occur within one octave of music. It is an example of a Chromatic Scale. Chromatic scales consist entirely of semitones (i.e., they move up or down one fret at a time) and the start and finish notes are always the same (this is called the keynote or tonic).
The chromatic scale uses all twelve notes used in western music and can be built on any note. Note that in the following example there are no sharps between B and C, or E and F. This is because they are a semitone apart and there is no room for an extra note between them. Play the exercise slowly and steadily, making sure you use the correct fingering.
The Natural Sign
This is a natural sign.
A natural sign cancels the effect of a sharp or flat for the rest of that bar, or until another sharp or flat sign occurs within that bar.
A sharpened note stays sharp until either a bar line or a natural sign (@) cancels it as in the following example.
Now play this example which makes use of both sharp and natural signs. Play it slowly at first and say the name of each note out loud as you play it.
To improve your knowledge of sharps and natural signs, find each of the following notes on the fretboard of your guitar. Write the name of each note above or below the note if necessary.
Flats
A flat (b) does the opposite of a sharp. Placed immediately before a note, it lowers the pitch of that note by one semitone
As with sharps, flats are cancelled by a bar line or by a natural sign.
The use of sharps and flats means that the same note can have two different names. For example, F#= Gb and G#= Ab. These are referred to as enharmonic notes. The following diagram outlines all of the notes in the First Position on the guitar (including both names for the enharmonic notes). The first position consists of the open string notes and the notes on the first four frets.
Here is an exercise to improve your knowledge of flats. Once again, write the names above or below the notes if necessary; then find them on the guitar.
The following example demonstrates two octaves of the E chromatic scale. Notice that sharps are used when the scale ascends and flats are used as it descends. This is common practice when writing chromatic passages in music. As with any example containing new notes, it is important to name the notes out loud as you play through this scale.
Now play this example which makes use of sharps, flats and naturals.
