#C chromatic scale full#

On a ukulele, if you start on any open string and play every fret climbing the scale one fret at a time until you reach the octave, you will have played a chromatic scale. A chromatic scale consists of 12 tones (13 counting the octave), each a half step (semi-tone) apart within the octave: do to do.

#C chromatic scale full#

Four full chromatic scales are staring back at you. But why would anyone want to begin their study of Western music by ignoring a full five notes? I bet if you asked one hundred ukulele players what the most important musical scale is, they would answer it’s the major scale. The most important discovery I made during the early part of my independent music education was stumbling upon the chromatic scale and the chromatic scale solfege syllables.

But did you know there are five other syllables which, when inserted into the major scale, create the 12-tone chromatic scale? You are no doubt familiar with the solfege syllables associated with the major scale, i.e., do– re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do (Example 1). The Julie Andrews character, Maria, sings the song “Do-Re-Mi” and magically teaches the seven Von Trapp family children to sing in just one scene! Probably the most famous application of the solfege syllables is from the Broadway musical and hit film The Sound of Music. Instead of singing 1-2-3 for the first three notes of a major scale, we’d sing do– re– mi (“doe-ray-me”). Solfege, from the Italian solfeggio, is applying a syllable to each note in a musical scale to make the scale singable. BY JIM D’VILLE | FROM THE WINTER 2020 ISSUE OF UKULELE