Understanding Basic Music Theory - Catherine Schmidt-Jones [60]
Microtones are intervals smaller than a half step. Besides being necessary to describe the scales and tuning systems of many Non-Western traditions, they have also been used in modern Western classical music, and are also used in African-American traditions such as jazz and blues. As of this writing, the Huygens-Fokker Foundation was a good place to start looking for information on microtonal music.
Constructing a Blues Scale
Blues scales are closely related to pentatonic scales. (Some versions are pentatonic.) Rearrange the pentatonic scale in Figure 4.68 above so that it begins on the C, and add an F sharp in between the F and G, and you have a commonly used version of the blues scale. Listen to this blues scale.
Figure 4.71.
Blues scales are closely related to pentatonic scales.
Modes and Ragas
Many music traditions do not use scales. The most familiar of these to the Western listener are medieval chant and the classical music of India. In these and other modal traditions, the rules for constructing a piece of music are quite different than the rules for music that is based on a scale. Please see Modes and Ragas for more information.
Other Scales
There are many, many other possible scales that are not part of the major-minor system. Some, like pentatonic and octatonic scales, have fewer or more notes per octave, but many have seven tones, just as a major scale does. A scale may be chosen or constructed by a composer for certain intriguing characteristics, for the types of melodies or harmonies that the scale enables, or just for the interesting or pleasant sound of music created using the scale.
For example, one class of scales that intrigues some composers is symmetrical scales. The chromatic scale and whole tone scales fall into this category, but other symmetrical scales can also be constructed. A diminished scale, for example, not only has the "symmetrical" quality; it is also a very useful scale if, for example, you are improvising a jazz solo over diminished chords.
Figure 4.72. A Diminished Scale
Like chromatic and whole tone scales, a diminished scale is "symmetrical".
Some scales are loosely based on the music of other cultures, and are used when the composer wants to evoke the music of another place or time. These scales are often borrowed from Non-western traditions, but are then used in ways typical of Western music. Since they usually ignore the tuning, melodic forms, and other aesthetic principles of the traditions that they are borrowed from, such uses of "exotic" scales should not be considered accurate representations of those traditions. There are examples in world music, however, in which the Non-western scale or mode is used in an authentic way. Although there is general agreement about the names of some commonly used "exotic" scales, they are not at all standardized. Often the name of a scale simply reflects what it sounds like to the person using it, and the same name may be applied to different scales, or different names to the same scale.
Figure 4.73. Some "Exotic" Scales
You may want to experiment with some of the many scales possible. Listen to one version each of: "diminished" scale, "enigmatic" scale, "Romanian" Scale, "Persian" scale and "Hungarian Major" Scale. For even more possibilities, try a web search for "exotic scales"; or try inventing your own scales and using them in compositions and improvisations.
Figure 4.74. An "Enigmatic" Scale
Solutions to Exercises
Solution to Exercise 4.8.1. (Return to Exercise)
Figure 4.75.
This whole tone scale contains the notes that are not in the whole tone scale in Figure 4.66.
Solution to Exercise 4.8.2. (Return to Exercise)
Figure 4.76.
The flats in one scale are the enharmonic equivalents of the sharps in the other scale.
Assuming that octaves don't matter - as they usually don't in Western music theory, this scale shares all of its possible pitches with the scale in Figure 4.66.
Solution to Exercise 4.8.3. (Return to Exercise)
If you can, have your teacher listen to your