Basic Chromatic Scale for Beginners

This is the chromatic scale is something you should learn sooner or later as an amateur guitarist. It will make sense on how chords, especially barre chords, are built up by pressing down strings on a certain fret. If you never  have seen the chromatic scale before it will be more than just confusing. I will therefore give you a short and easy explanation. You will get the rest by studying it yourself.

As mentioned above the chromatic scale will give you a better overview on what tone a string will play on a certain fret. For example, if you play press down the E-string on the 5th fret you will get an A (compare this to the traditional tuning method), or if you press down the B-string on 8th fret you will get a G.

As you can see the strings simply counts up between A and G and then starts over again. For example the e-string starts counting from F-G-A-B-C-D-E. When it reaches the 12th fret the alphabetic tone-counting – A-G – starts over again, but with one octave higher. The “F# (Gb)” and indicates that the tone is a half tone – a semitone. Whether its written as a “-#” or a “-b” doesn’t matter, it’s the same.

So, how can you make use of this scale then? As a beginner you could find the barre or power patterns. When you barre the F-chord you will see that the index finger ends at E1 – a F-tone. Moving up the same grip to the 3rd fret will make it a G, 5th fret an A and so on. Likewise your barre or power C, with your index finger on A-string 3rd fret (thick E-string muted) will become a C# (or Gb, its the same) on 4th fret.

When you get the hang of the chromatic scale you should move on to learn different scales, such as the penta scales. I will explain the use of learning those in a future article.

Check out the rest of my guitar article series:

Basic Guitar Chords: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Chords-Chart.689453
Bar guitar chords: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Barre-Chords-Chart.689457
Power Chords: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Power-Chords-Chart.692779

Basic Tablatures: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Tablature-Techniques-for-Beginners.708261

Guitar Tuning: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Tuning-for-Beginners.705227
Alternative Tunings: http://www.musicouch.com/Instruments/String/Guitar/Basic-Guitar-Alternative-Tunings-Overview.785909