In works of the Ars Nova from the 14th century, this was used to indicate a temporary change in metre from triple to duple, or vice versa. The details vary widely by period and place, but generally the addition of a colour (often red) to an empty or filled head of a note, or the "colouring in" of an otherwise empty head of a note, shortens the duration of the note. The term cromatico (Italian) was occasionally used in the Medieval and Renaissance periods to refer to the coloration (Latin coloratio) of certain notes. For all three tetrachords, only the middle two strings varied in their pitch. In the enharmonic tetrachord the tuning had two quarter tone intervals at the bottom: A G F E (where F is F ♮ lowered by a quarter tone).
In the chromatic tetrachord the second string of the lyre was lowered from G to G ♭, so that the two lower intervals in the tetrachord were semitones, making the pitches A G ♭ F E. A diatonic tetrachord comprised, in descending order, two whole tones and a semitone, such as A G F E (roughly). These three tunings were called diatonic, chromatic, and enharmonic, and the sequences of four notes that they produced were called tetrachords ("four strings"). In ancient Greece there were three standard tunings (known by the Latin word genus, plural genera) of a lyre. Historically, however, it had other senses, referring in Ancient Greek music theory to a particular tuning of the tetrachord, and to a rhythmic notational convention in mensural music of the 14th to 16th centuries. Ĭhromatic most often refers to structures derived from the twelve-note chromatic scale, which consists of all semitones. In some usages it includes all forms of heptatonic scale that are in common use in Western music (the major, and all forms of the minor). Very often, diatonic refers to musical elements derived from the modes and transpositions of the "white note scale" C–D–E–F–G–A–B. These terms may mean different things in different contexts. They are very often used as a pair, especially when applied to contrasting features of the common practice music of the period 1600–1900. , movement I, fugue subject: diatonic variant ĭiatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. The final 13th note is the octave note, having the same name as the starting note. In this case, the first explanation above applies - we will continue to use sharp notes ascending and descending to match the scale. An example D chromatic scaleįor this example - the chromatic scale in the key of D, let's assume that we are working with a key that is on the circle of 5ths - D major scale, which is a sharp-based key signature, and we want to identify some chromatic scale notes outside that key. when playing the notes from lowest to the highest pitch, then use flats when descending.
#Chromatic chords how to#
Chromatic scales without a key signatureįor both C major key signature and A natural minor key signature, there are no sharp or flat notes, so since there is no key signature, we have no clue as to whether to use sharp or flat names to identify any non-natural notes.Īlthough there seem to be no generally agreed rules on how to handle this, one common music theory convention is to use sharps when ascending the scale ie. Eb major key signature, where flat note names would be used. The same principle applies to flat-based key signatures, eg. G major key signature, and we want to use the chromatic scale to identify notes outside that scale, sharps would be used for those chromatic scale notes. major scale, or any minor scale), then the key signature will be the guide as to whether to use sharps or flats for the chromatic scale.įor example, if a sharp-based key signature is used, eg. If chromatic scale notes are being used and identified within the context of a scale with a key signature (eg. Chromatic scale naming in the context of a key signature When it comes to naming the notes shown in the last step, the decision to be made is whether to use sharp or flat note names, both ascending or descending. This step gives note names to the piano keys identified in the previous step.
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