Here Pete talks about the 12 tone chromatic scale. All 12 notes of the scale and their names are briefly presented.
Every note we have, in one scale
Western music runs on just 12 notes, each a semitone (one fret) apart. Play them all in order and you have the chromatic scale – the master list every other scale and chord is drawn from. Each step up from your starting note is an interval with a name, and learning those names is the fastest way to start talking (and thinking) like a musician:
- Minor 2nd (semitone) · Major 2nd · Minor 3rd · Major 3rd
- Perfect 4th · Augmented 4th – the infamous tritone · Perfect 5th
- Minor 6th · Major 6th · Minor 7th · Major 7th · Octave
On the bass this is wonderfully practical: one fret = one semitone, so the whole chromatic scale lives under your hand on a single string. Once you can name the distance between any two notes, chord symbols, scale formulas and bass line construction all start making sense at once.
Where to go next
Each of these intervals has its own personality, and Pete has a whole series digging into them one at a time – start with semitones (with instant sharks!), then meet the major 2nd, minor 3rd and major 3rd.
From all twelve notes to the five you'll use most: the bass pentatonic scale picks five of them and fits over almost anything – all five modes, four exercises and two free printable PDFs in one written lesson. And the wider picture – the five scale families pop music leans on, two positions each – is drawn out in Bass Scales: The Complete Map.
And once the names are solid on paper, try naming them by ear: the free Interval Ear Trainer's all-twelve mode quizzes you on every distance in this lesson.
Prefer a guided route through all of this? Book one-to-one online bass lessons with Pete, or in person in South Wales.