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? asked in Arts & HumanitiesPerforming Arts · 5 years ago

Notes on a Chromatic Scale?

Are there numbers or specific names assigned to the notes on a chromatic run that fall outside of the key signature? For instance, if I'm playing a bass run of

A, C, B, Bb, A, what would the Bb be called?

Or, if it was written in numbers, would it be shown as

I, IIIb, II, IIb, I or is there a special set of terms for Chromatic scales?

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  • 5 years ago
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    If you were reading music notation, the notes that aren't part of the scale would be called "accidentals". Using the numeral system, I, IIIb, II, IIb would be correct for those notes, but they aren't a "chromatic scale" or "chromatic run".

    The chromatic scale or a chromatic run is fancy language for all 12 notes in the octave. If you're playing bass and somebody tells you to play a chromatic run between 2 notes, you just hit every fret sequentially between those notes. For instance, a chromatic run from C down to A would be C-B-Bb-A (IIIb-II-IIb-I)

    Source(s): Playing guitar since 1964
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