A Whole Tone Scale

What is the A Whole Tone Scale?

The whole tone scale is built entirely from whole steps — six notes, no half steps, perfectly symmetrical. This means it has no strong pull toward any single note, creating a dreamlike, suspended quality that composers like Debussy and jazz saxophonists like Wayne Shorter have used to evoke mystery and ambiguity. Here's how the A Whole Tone Scale lays out on the fretboard.

Notes and Positions

No half steps. Dreamy and unstable. On bass, this scale becomes a toolkit for strong roots, passing tones, and melodic fills that still support the groove. Think in root-on-E and root-on-A boxes, then adapt the same notes for 5-string bass when the low B string gives you another root below the pattern. In the key of A, the notes are: A, B, C#, D#, E#, G.

How to Use It

You'll often hear it in Impressionism, Jazz, and Film Scores. A good way to internalize the sound is to sing the root, then sing a few scale degrees before you play them.

Loop a simple drum groove and keep every note locked to the subdivision before adding fills. Use the interactive fretboard above to spot repeats of the same note on different strings and frets.