Chroma feature

(a) Musical score of a C-major scale. (b) Chromagram obtained from the score. (c) Audio recording of the C-major scale played on a piano. (d) Chromagram obtained from the audio recording.

In Western music, the term chroma feature or chromagram closely relates to twelve different pitch classes. Chroma-based features, which are also referred to as "pitch class profiles", are a powerful tool for analyzing music whose pitches can be meaningfully categorized (often into twelve categories) and whose tuning approximates to the equal-tempered scale. One main property of chroma features is that they capture harmonic and melodic characteristics of music, while being robust to changes in timbre and instrumentation.