Other scales · Music theory
The chromatic, pentatonic, blues and whole-tone scales, and the modes.
The chromatic scale
The chromatic scale always moves by half steps: it has twelve different sounds and covers every key on the piano. It has no tonic of its own and no degree more important than another.
By custom it is written with sharps going up and with flats going down, to avoid repeating natural signs. Within a key its spelling adapts: the degrees of the scale are kept and the missing notes are added between them.
The chromatic scale within a key
Within a key, the scale degrees are kept and the missing notes added. The so-called harmonic form does this repeating no degree more than twice and is written the same going up and down. In C major: C, D♭, D, E♭, E, F, F♯, G, A♭, A, B♭, B.