Hello,
Could someone please tell me if this is the correct way of writing out the g minor melodic chromatic scale:
Ascending:
G, G#, A, Bb, Bnat, C, C#, D, D#, E, E#, F#, G

Descending:
G, Gb, F, E, Eb, D, Db, C, Cb, Bb,A, Ab, G

Thank you very much for looking! Also, you can read about Harmonic and Chromatic scales in the pink book page 31.

The melodic chromatic scale actually hasn't got a set form!

As with any chromatic scale, the interval between each sucessive note is a semitone. The way the notes are written, however, is left to personal taste.

In every case, the ascending and descending versions are different (for example, the rising scale might be written with naturals and sharps while the falling scale is written with naturals and flats) and they will vary according to whether the key is major or minor.

The melodic chromatic scale actually hasn't got a set form. The only clear, widely accepted rule however, is that no scale degree should be used more than once in succession and that the first, fifth and eighth degrees can be repeated.

For a G minor melodic chromatic scale I personally would write it like this:

G · G#/Ab · A · A#/Bb · B · C · C#/Db · D · D#/ Eb · E · F · F#/Gb ·

Yes , just to say I concur with Cadence.

Where have I been?
I've never heard a chromatic scale described in that way.
the only way I've ever come across is chromatic scale starting on x.

I agree, sbhoa - I've always understood that a chromatic is a chromatic is a chromatic, and a minor is (for exam purposes) either harmonic or melodic.

Convention is to add sharps on the way up and flats on the way down for chromatic scales so that you don't have to keep cancelling out the previous accidental.

I too thought that the chromatic was just a chromatic and nothing else, but, as quite often happens, seeing a reply on a thread, it sent me off to see if I could find out about it; and I found the following on Wikipaedia. There's also a diagram of a melodic chromatic scale but it wouldn't copy into this post. The link for the page is Chromatic scale on Wiki

Yes, I forgot to say before that as far as I'm aware, you always play chromatic scales in the same manner, it's just how they are represented on paper that differes depending on the type (harmonic/melodic)

I also agree that there's no minor or major with chromatics.

You could follow the notation exactly on a harpsichord or organ with split black keys, with anything from 13 to 17 notes to the octave, so on these instruments (some of each still exist, mostly 17th C survivals, I believe) you would have the opportunity to play them differently.

Thank You everyone!

Can anyone explain why, in practical terms, there is any need for this pedantic terminology/notation? Surely the purpose of notation is to present the player with the least ambiguous and most easily read instructions for playing what the composer writes.

My basic principle is that a scale should look like a scale (in other words, in the case of a chromatic scale, you should never have a notated 3rd of any sort, e.g. E# to Gb), and that you should use the least number of accidentals possible (which is why you use sharps ascending and flats descending, and take account of key signatures). The nomenclature of 'melodic' and 'harmonic' seems to me to be effectively completely functionless, and is only there to amuse or confuse theorists. It serves no practical purpose, as far as I can see. It is, in my humble opinion, this sort of arbitrary and pointless distinction that puts many people off theory. I will happily and enthusiastically justify many of music theory's many apparently arcane rules; this one I cannot.

I love music theory as long as it reflects practical purpose or distinctions - but when it turns into a word game it frustrates me as much as does much of what passes for philosophy. I'm with Wittgenstein on this one.