Chromatic semitone

Meantone temperament

Meantone temperaments are generated by a sequence of temperedperfect fifths of the same size, similarly to Pythagorean tuning, where the perfect fifths are pure instead. Likewise, the diatonic and chromatic semitones depend on the size of the fifth, where the diatonic semitone is derived by descending 5 fifths, and the chromatic semitone is derived by ascending 7 fifths. These are typically of different sizes, with the exception of 12 equal temperament, discussed below. Unlike in Pythagorean tuning, the chromatic semitone is usually smaller than the diatonic.