Musical Terms

Chord Progressions - A series of chords (sometimes referred to as the 'chord changes') that constitutes a verse, chorus, or even a complete song. A chord progression can be as short as a 2 bar pattern that repeats throughout a song. More commonly, you will find a 4 bar, 8 bar, 16 bar, or a 12 bar pattern that repeats or is placed together with other progressions to make up a complete song. Most blues follows a standard 12 bar chord progression, but you can run into an 8 or 16 bar blues from time to time. Most songs outside of the blues format will tend be made up of either 8 or 16 bar patterns.

Chromatic Scale- "Chromatic" refers to all 12 different notes which are found in Western culture music. If you start on any key of a piano and play every note, including all white and black keys, you are playing a chromatic scale.

Diatonic Scale- A diatonic scale has exactly 7 different notes in it. The last note of a diatonic scale is a repetition of the first note and doesn't count as one of the seven notes. The major scale is the most common example of a diatonic scale. Other types of diatonic scales include: the harmonic minor scale, the natural minor scale, and the melodic minor scale.

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