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 examples 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 barline or a natural sign (@) cancels it as in the following example.
