Have You Discovered The Ten Chromatic Bass Notes Yet?

There are ten chromatic bass notes and I’ll be showing you these bass notes in this lesson.

Contrary to the popular knowledge that there are five chromatic bass notes, you’ll be seeing the ten chromatic bass note options from a theoretical standpoint.

Now, if you’re just coming across the term chromatic bass note for the first time, I’m dedicating the very first segment of this blog to you.

Let’s get started.

“What Is A Chromatic Bass Note?”

There are twelve tones in tonal music: seven are said to be natural while five are considered to be accidental. In the key of C major:

…all the white notes are the naturals:

…while the black notes are the accidentals:

Diatonic Vs Chromatic Notes

The naturals are the notes of the prevalent key (the key of C major in this case) which includes:

C:

E:

A:

B:

…and there are seven of them; while the accidentals are notes that are foreign to the prevalent key (the key of C major) which include:

Db:

F#:

Bb:

…and there are five of them.

Chromatic Bass Notes — Defined

A chromatic bass note is a bass note that is not in the prevalent key.

In the key of C major:

….the following bass notes are diatonic (belonging to the prevalent key):

D:

B:

G:

…while the following are chromatic (foreign to the prevalent key):

C#:

Eb:

A#:

Although there are five accidental notes in the key, there are ten chromatic bass notes and I’ll be showing you ten of them in the next segment.

Attention: To learn more about this, I recommend our 500+ page course: The “Official Guide To Piano Playing.” Click here for more information.

Revealed: Ten Chromatic Bass Notes

Although there are 5 accidentals in every key, there are actually ten chromatic bass notes and I’ll be showing you these bass notes in this segment.

There are two chromatic bass note classes: there are bass notes that are associated with the sharp symbol and those that are associated with the flat symbol.

There are five bass notes in the former and five in the latter; altogether, ten chromatic bass notes.

Let’s take a closer look.

Five Chromatic Bass Notes Associated With The Sharp (#) Symbol

There are five chromatic bass notes that are associated with the sharp symbol and they are as follows:

C#:

D#:

F#:

G#:

A#:

Each of these chromatic bass notes is derived from a given diatonic note. Check them out below…

C#:

…is derived from C:

…by raising its pitch level by a half-step.

D#:

…is derived from D:

…by raising its pitch level by a half-step.

“Other Chromatic Bass Notes…”

F#:

…is derived from F:

G#:

…is derived from G:

A#:

…is derived from A:

So, all we’ve done is to associate the five accidentals with the sharp symbol and that produced five chromatic bass notes. Lets’ go ahead and see what the association of these five accidentals with the flat symbol would produce.

Attention: To learn more about this, I recommend our 500+ page course: The “Official Guide To Piano Playing.” Click here for more information.

Five Chromatic Bass Notes Associated With The Flat (b) Symbol

There are also five chromatic bass notes that are associated with the flat symbol. Check them out:

Db:

Eb:

Gb:

Ab:

Bb:

Each of these chromatic bass notes is derived from a given diatonic note. Check them out below…

Db:

…is derived from D:

…by lowering its pitch level by a half-step.

Eb:

…is derived from E:

…by lowering its pitch level by a half-step.

“Other Chromatic Bass Notes…”

Gb:

…is derived from G:

Ab:

…is derived from A:

Bb:

…is derived from B:

So, all we’ve done is to associate the five accidentals with the flat symbol and we came up with five chromatic bass notes. .

Attention: To learn more about this, I recommend our 500+ page course: The “Official Guide To Piano Playing.” Click here for more information.

Final Words

Every chromatic bass note is important and knowing how they are applied in root progressions, the appropriate right hand chord to play over them and how they resolve are other aspects of this topic that we’ll discuss in subsequent posts.

You’ll do well to anticipate.

All the best.

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• Bio
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Chuku Onyemachi

Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group

Onyemachi "Onye" Chuku is a Nigerian musicologist, pianist, and author. Inspired by his role model (Jermaine Griggs) who has become his mentor, what he started off as teaching musicians in his Aba-Nigeria neighborhood in April 2005 eventually morphed into an international career that has helped hundreds of thousands of musicians all around the world. Onye lives in Dubai and is currently the Head of Education at HearandPlay Music Group and the music consultant of the Gospel Music Training Center, all in California, USA.

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Tagged as: #1, accidentals, b2, bass note, bass notes, chromatic bass note, chromatic bass notes, diatonic vs chromatic, flats, naturals, sharps