chromatic scale
noun
: a musical scale consisting entirely of half steps
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web Resisting this hurry, Jyoti’s voice drags, slips backward down a chromatic scale, stops, changes keys, rises, turns corners and reconsiders. 
New York Times, 11 Mar. 2021 Under its dictates, a musical work must deploy all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in precisely equal proportion throughout, foregoing the stable tonal center that had underpinned Western music for centuries. Margalit Fox, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2020 The quick march returns, but this time a dramatically slow rising chromatic scale for woodwinds, brass and strings brings the emotional level to its zenith with the last climactic repeat of the trio melody. Barrymore Laurence Scherer, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2020 The band’s lawyers argued that what little the two songs had in common — a chord progression and a descending chromatic scale — were musical elements too basic to be protected by copyright. Ben Sisario, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2020 At the 2016 trial, Led Zeppelin’s lawyers argued that what little the two songs had in common — similar chord progressions and a descending chromatic scale — had popped up in music for over 300 years. Ben Sisario, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2019 The overture began promisingly, sedate and serene — with the Pilgrim’s Chorus theme, which returns near the end in the brasses, played over quiet, downward chromatic scales in the strings. Joshua Barone, New York Times, 26 July 2019 One method, the Von Luschan chromatic scale, invented 36 different categories by comparing skin color to opaque colored tiles. Arielle Pardes, WIRED, 26 Apr. 2018 Now, rather than being limited to the five digits that evolution has given us, a pianist could playing by issuing mental instructions to 12 virtual fingers, one for each note on the chromatic scale (all the white and black keys in an octave). R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2018 See More
New York Times, 11 Mar. 2021 Under its dictates, a musical work must deploy all 12 notes of the chromatic scale in precisely equal proportion throughout, foregoing the stable tonal center that had underpinned Western music for centuries. Margalit Fox, New York Times, 2 Oct. 2020 The quick march returns, but this time a dramatically slow rising chromatic scale for woodwinds, brass and strings brings the emotional level to its zenith with the last climactic repeat of the trio melody. Barrymore Laurence Scherer, WSJ, 4 Sep. 2020 The band’s lawyers argued that what little the two songs had in common — a chord progression and a descending chromatic scale — were musical elements too basic to be protected by copyright. Ben Sisario, New York Times, 9 Mar. 2020 At the 2016 trial, Led Zeppelin’s lawyers argued that what little the two songs had in common — similar chord progressions and a descending chromatic scale — had popped up in music for over 300 years. Ben Sisario, New York Times, 22 Sep. 2019 The overture began promisingly, sedate and serene — with the Pilgrim’s Chorus theme, which returns near the end in the brasses, played over quiet, downward chromatic scales in the strings. Joshua Barone, New York Times, 26 July 2019 One method, the Von Luschan chromatic scale, invented 36 different categories by comparing skin color to opaque colored tiles. Arielle Pardes, WIRED, 26 Apr. 2018 Now, rather than being limited to the five digits that evolution has given us, a pianist could playing by issuing mental instructions to 12 virtual fingers, one for each note on the chromatic scale (all the white and black keys in an octave). R. Douglas Fields, Scientific American, 27 Mar. 2018 See More Word History
First Known Use
circa 1789, in the meaning defined above
Kids Definition
chromatic scale
noun
chro·mat·ic scale
krō-ˈma-tik-
: a musical scale that has all half steps