Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a musical scale that contains all twelve pitches of the Western tempered scale. All of the other scales in traditional Western music are currently subsets of this scale. Each pitch is separated from its upper and lower neighbors by the interval of one half step, or semitone. In tonal music this scale finds little use outside of decorative runs up or down as it has no harmonic direction. As tonality began to widen during the last half of the nineteenth century, with new combinations of chords, keys and harmonies being tried, the chromatic scale became more widely used, especially in the works of Richard Wagner, such as the opera 'Tristan und Isolde'. As tonal harmony continued to widen and even break down, the chromatic scale became the basis of modern music written using the twelve tone technique, a tone row being a specific ordering or series of the chromatic scale, and later serialism.
Gyorgy Ligeti has written a piano etude, Book 1, No. 3: "Touches bloquÃÂées" ("Blocked Keys"), which comprises entirely of chromatic eighth note runs, notes, and rhythms, being emphasized over others simply by holding only certain keys while depressing others.
Here is the standard keyboard fingering for a chromatic scale:
Keyboard fingering
