using only the notes of the appropriate major or minor scale compare chromatic自然的 Word Originearly 17th cent. (denoting a tetrachord, a scale of four notes, divided into two tones and a lower semitone, or ancient Greek music based on this): from French diatonique, or via late Latin from Greek diatonikos ‘at intervals of a tone’, from dia ‘through’ + tonos ‘tone’.