Hello again! Our previous topic was Temperaments, a collection of tuning systems for keyboards and other instruments. Today we will cover Scale and Modes, and perhaps some other interesting tidbits.
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So what is a scale? A scale is an arrangement of notes in a certain pattern that repeats at the octave. We've already discussed the Solfege "Do-Re-Mi-Fa-Sol-La-Ti-Do" which is the Major scale. The Major scale can be seen in some other ways. For example in C it would be "C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C." But to narrow down exactly what a major scale is, regardless of what pitch you start on, you use a certain order of whole steps and half steps to construct the scale. For a Major scale, you will always use this interval pattern:
W-W-H-W-W-W-H
W being a whole step and H being a half step. It may help you to look at a piano keyboard to visualize this concept. Again, this pattern holds true for any starting pitch. So if I started a major scale on Eb instead of C, my pattern of steps would be the same so my scale would come out to "Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C-D-Eb." Easy enough, right?
The Natural Minor scale uses just the same notes as the major scale, but the interval pattern starts in a different place. Instead of WWHWWWH, it uses W-H-W-W-H-W-W. Interestingly, if you don't count the step that brings you back to your starting pitch, Natural Minor is a symmetrical scale, meaning the interval content is the same if the order is reversed. We'll see other scales that share this property.
The Major scale is typically associated with happiness and the Minor scale with sadness. But why? I have no clue, and it honestly makes no sense to me. You can have uplifting songs in a minor key (E.S. Posthumus' Pompeii) and heartbreakingly sad songs in a major key (Married Life, the opening sequence to Pixar's UP, for example). The associations people make about major and minor key probably come from years of social conditioning.
Now, there are other types of Minor scales, called Harmonic and Melodic. They exist in Music Theory to provide for more harmonic complexity when composing or playing in minor keys. Harmonic Minor is:
W-H-W-W-H-m3-H................where there's actually a jump of a minor third in the scale. Harmonic Minor is a way of providing a leading tone to the minor scale. Leading tones are things like B to C, a half-step motion that's a major part of a chord resolution through what's called Voice Leading. Anyway, if you had Harmonic Minor spelled on A you would have:
"A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A"................so really it's Natural Minor, but with the 7th note raised by a half step.
Melodic Minor is not complicated, it's Natural Minor with a raised 6th and 7th.
W-H-W-W-W-W-H or "A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#-A"
(or you could call it Major with a flat 3, it's your call)
Then so far we've seen the following scales:
Major, Natural Minor, Harmonic Minor, Melodic Minor.
Are these the only scales? Of course not! There are such things as the Gypsy scale, Hungarian scale, Arabic, Persian, and more--but those are kind of advanced so I'll just touch them and leave them here for now.
There are also scales that use more, or less than seven notes. For example the pentatonic scale, which uses 5 notes. It has no half steps between pitches, so dissonance is minimal or nonexistent depending on the ear of the listener. The clearest example of the pentatonic scale is simply the black keys of a piano:
"F#-G#-A#-C#-D#-F#" being "Major Pentatonic" because the notes are in an order that promotes a major sound. Indeed, it's a major scale missing the 4th and 6th.
"D#-F#-G#-A#-C#-D#" being "Minor Pentatonic" for an analogous reason.
The Pentatonic Scales are associated with Asia, Asians, China, Japan, etc. If you plunk around on only the black keys of a piano, you'll recognize what I mean. This association comes from the fact that many Asian culture do utilize some kind of 5-note scalar tuning on their instruments. It's not exactly like our equal-tempered pentatonic scale, but it's close enough that the association stands.
There are also Hexatonic scales, like the Whole Tone Scale or the Prometheus Scale.
Whole tone scale: "C-D-E-F#-G#-A#-C" : uses only whole steps, is made of three tritones, and when this scale is played the sound often seems devoid of a tonal center. If you've watched cartoons/sitcoms at all you'll recognize the whole tone scale; it is often used when characters are dreaming.
The Prometheus Scale is similar to, but /dramatically/ different from the whole tone scale. Only one pitch is different, but that pitch changes the harmonic ballgame tremendously.
Prometheus Scale: "C-D-E-F#-A-Bb-C"
Alexander Scriabin, a composer of the 20th century, utilized something in his work which analysts came to call the "Mystic Chord." The Mystic chord uses the very specific tones of the Prometheus Scale, C-D-E-F#-A-Bb-C , and spells them as what's called a Quartal Hexachord. In layman's terms, that means a chord with six notes (hexa) spelled out vertically in some type of 4ths (quart). The intervals of the Mystic Chord are an augmented fourth, a diminished fourth, another augmented fourth, a perfect fourth, and another perfect fourth. You could more specifically say that is uses that interval pattern with these notes:
"C-F#-Bb, E, A, D" , each higher in pitch than the last. The resulting vertical sonority (read: chord) is Scriabin's Mystic Chord in all its glory. I encourage you to listen to his work "Prometheus: Poem of Fire" for a clear understanding of how awesome the chord is (for whatever reason; the Mystic Chord is rooted not in consonant harmony but in Scriabin's personal spiritual beliefs).
Also there are 8-note scales, Whole-Half Diminished and Half-Whole Diminished. These are obtained by alternating whole and half steps, creating a scale rife with minor seconds, tritones, and diminished chords. Compared to many of the other scales, these could commonly be perceived as ugly. To clarify, the interval patterns are W-H-W-H-W-H-W-H, OR, H-W-H-W-H-W-H-W. It's not complicated stuff.
So that's it for scales that use more or less than seven notes (I'm not gonna talk about "nonatonic" or "decatonic" or "quartatonic" -- especially quartatonic, because that'd mean that 7th chord are scales!). But what about interesting scales that DO use seven notes? A prime example is the Lydian Dominant Scale, which approximates the upper partials of the harmonic series into a musical scale; it has a very cool and unique sound due to this. Its interval pattern is "W-W-W-H-W-H-W." Lydian Dominant is also a Mode of Melodic Minor.
Whoa now. WHOA. NOW. "MODE"? Vat eez deez "Maude" vous zpeek off?
Modes are a delightful consequence of the invention of scales.When you have an interval pattern that repeats, you could start on any pitch of the pattern and treat is an your Tonic. Let me explain what this means briefly.
There are all kinds of modes out there, but first I'll discuss those derived from the Major Scale. To begin with, the Major Scale is itself a Mode. It's called "Ionian" Mode, and for a very neat reason. Back when good ol' Pythagoras was doing his thing, establishing founding principles of music, different cultures in the western world favored some interval patterns over others. The most popular wound up being Ionian (major scale) and Aeolian (minor scale), and these have endured even to this day.
But here are all the possible Modes of Major:
1. Ionian: W-W-H-W-W-W-H
2. Dorian: W-H-WWW-H-W (symmetrical/palindromic; pattern is same if read from end to beginning)
3. Phrygian: H-W-W-W-H-W-W
4. Lydian: W-W-W-H-W-W-H
5. Mixo-Lydian: W-W-H-W-W-H-W
6. Aeolian: W-H-WW-H-W-W (also palindromic, if you don't count the repeated note at the octave)
7. Locrian: H-W-W-H-WWW
They have certain qualities and properties that make them special:
Ionian: Is the Major Scale. Is associated with positive emotions. No more to be said.
CDEFGABC on the piano.
Dorian: Minor scale with a sharped 6th. Its symmetry makes it perfect for chant, as in a cathedral.
DEFGABCD on the piano.
Phrygian: Minor scale with a flattened 2nd. It has a very dark feel to it, also good for ominous chanting.
EFGABCDE on the piano.
Lydian: Major scale with a sharped 4th. Can be peaceful OR jarring depending on usage (read: Saria's Song in Zelda vs Floating Continent in Final Fantasy 6).
FGABCDEF on the piano.
Mixo-Lydian: Major with a flattened 7th. Similar to Lydian Dominant. To me it seems subdued.
GABCDEFG on the piano.
Aeolian: The Minor Scale. Is palindromic, is associated with negative emotions.
ABCDEFGA on the piano.
Locrian: Minor with a flat 2nd and flat 5th. I personally find this mode useless. It's very unsettling, so perhaps it could work thematically in a game or film score.
BCDEFGAB on the piano.
And those are only the Modes of the Major scale. I think the Modes of Melodic Minor are even cooler.
1. Melodic Minor: W-H-W-W-W-W-H
2. Dorian b2: H-W-W-W-W-H-W (Palindromic if you don't count the octave)
3. Lydian Augmented: W-W-W-W-H-W-H
4. Lydian Dominant: W-W-W-H-W-H-W (Also made up of two dominant seventh chords)
5. Mixo-Lydian b6: WW-H-W-H-WW (Palindromic from root to octave)
6. Semilocrian: W-H-W-H-W-W-W (One of my favorites: Made up of two half-diminished seventh chords)
7. Superlocrian: H-W-H-W-W-W-W (more like SUPER-USELESS)
I won't discuss the modes of Harmonic Minor today. Probably because I don't like them as much. ;)
I think I'll devote a second treatise later on to the truly obscure scales and modes. For now, I'll leave it at that! Hope that was helpful. If you have questions, e-mail me at dmguillot@gmail.com, or shoot me a message on Facebook. I'll do my best to elaborate.
I plan on sharing something very special with you all on my next post. It's something I've been researching for over a year, and I think you'll be surprised by how elaborate it all is. Seeya next time! :)
