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4.1.9
What Is a Chromatic Scale? A Scale of Equal Intervals

The chromatic scale by itself is a scale of equal intervals. It's just a pool of semitones or half-steps from which many smaller, truly musical scales can be built.

Look at all those (comparatively) wide intervals between some of the notes (Figure 13 below). Between C and D. Between D and E. Between F and G. Between G and A. Between A and B. Five intervals.

The do-re-mi musical scale with gaps that become chromatic notes and the chromatic scale.

FIGURE 13 The “Do-Re-Mi” Scale Before Turning It Into an Equal-Interval Scale

Those five intervals look suspiciously like they’re exactly twice as wide as the two smaller intervals, the ones between E and F, and B and C. If the five bigger intervals are exactly twice as wide as the two smaller ones, and if you were to insert a tone into each of those wide gaps, you’d have:

  • A 12-equal-interval scale (a total of 13 tones, including the first and last ones, which are the same note, an octave apart);
  • A scale composed of close-together tones.

Precisely the recipe for non-musicality. So, would such a scale actually sound chaotic?

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