Wednesday, Jun 19, 2013

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May 2010 \ Premier Clinic \ Jazz \ The Whole Tone Scale

The Whole Tone Scale John Heussenstamm Creating jazzy lines, one step at a time.

From Guitar Workout

The whole tone scale is created from nothing but consecutive whole steps (notes that are two frets apart):

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When you’re improvising and creating spontaneous music in jazz, the last thing you want is to play something that doesn’t have an attractive melodic quality. If we analyze the degrees of the whole tone scale and see what chords we can harmonize this sound with, it looks like a very functional device for odd-sounding augmented (#5) and fl at-five (b5) chords. To my ears, it’s okay if you’re playing a quick passage or a chord change that has one of the following chords: A7b5, A7#5, A9b5, A9#5 (1 3 b5 #5 b7 9).

The most interesting approach to this scale I’ve seen was in an Allan Holdsworth book. He fills half the gaps with passing tones or chromatic notes. Chromatic sounds are created by consecutive half steps. We can use this passing tone concept with any type of scale. The goal is to try and make music with this, but be patient if you struggle a bit—these are difficult concepts and sounds to get a handle on.

Download Example Audio