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24/11/2003 10:30 pm
Whole Tone Scale aka Augmented Scale
Do you agree with my thoughts?
Construction: w-w-w-w-w-w
C Whole Tone Scale: C-D-E-#F-#G-#A-C
#B has been written enharmonically as C.
I was studying the possible chords from this scale. It appears that the only possible chords are augmented 5ths from any degree of the scale. And also the inversions of the augmented 5th can be written enharmonically as augmented 5ths.
I wondered why they don't extend past the 5th. I thought it was because the tonic is supported by the use of Perfect 4th and 5th intervals. Since neither exist in the scale the root of the scale has no support at all as the tonic. This scale and it's chord can be used to obliterate the key or tonic and take the melody to an entirely different place.
Conclusion: The only chords possible from the whole tone scale are Augmented 5ths, period!
25/11/2003 1:59 am
You've got the right conclusion, Crash!
Since chords are built in thirds, and whole tone scales have augmented thirds (two whole tones), you can map out where each chord tone falls:
If the root is C, the third is E
The fifth is G#
The seventh is B#
As you noted, B# is enharmonic to C, so at that point you're really starting over.
If you want to play an aumented 7th chord, you have to drop the B# down to B... else you just get an augmented triad, no matter how many thirds you add :)
Tom
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
25/11/2003 2:23 pm
vice versa with the diminished scale?
you will only get diminished chords from the scale and all the inversions just turn out to be other diminished chors built on minor 3rd intervals ontop of each other?
Topic starter
25/11/2003 8:03 pm
Alex, you are right about that too! It works out to have only diminished triads.
Have you checked out these:
half-whole tone scale w-h-w-h-w-h-w-h
whole-half tone scale h-w-h-w-h-w-h-w
25/11/2003 8:46 pm
those are the 2 types of diminished scales, resulting in a series of minor 3rd intervals.
26/11/2003 1:42 am
The really useful thing about both types of chords is that they 'bridge' different keys. For example, the augmented C chord (C-E-G#) is the bottom two notes of both a C major and an E major chord.
A diminished seventh chord is often substituted for a dominant seventh chord... it's got that tension in it that needs to be resolved... but unlike the seventh, the diminshed chord can have four different names; since it's symmetrical, any note can be considered the root.
You can have C-Eb-Gb-Bbb, and think of it as C dim, Eb dim, Gb dim, or A dim. You could take a progression from F to Cº7 (substituting for C7), and then to Ab!
In that case, the Cº7 serves as a substitute for C7, but also as a substitute for Eb7, which resolves to Ab.
Either type of chord can be used to pivot to a key that would be way out in left field harmonically, but still make sense to the ear.
Tom
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
Topic starter
26/11/2003 1:59 am
Both types meaning augmented and diminished?
26/11/2003 2:28 am
Yep
Guitar teacher offering lessons in Plainfield IL
26/11/2003 1:42 pm
All this theory stuff can be confuzing, but it's really worth it. My soloing is infinately more creative, now that I realize more about scales.
26/11/2003 1:45 pm
Didn't Debussey write some piano music using the whole tone scale?
A :-)
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27/11/2003 1:07 am
He sure did, in Violes (Preludes). Another good example is Bartok's Mikrokosmo.
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