The 7 Strange Scales Nobody Talks About 

lydian dominant !

Mixo Flat 6 if for no other reason than because it beautifully incorporates the minor 4 chord into it (by the way, I loved your video on the flat 4) :)

Sus scales

Mixo flat sixo and Phrygian Dominant are my current fav spicy modes! So many haunting half step resolutions. I hadn't ever heard of Aeolian b5 whaaaaaat!?

Super locrian! Loved this video!! :D

Begone bot

Wow it actually left

Number 9 A la mode

wdym, my dad always tells me about them lol

Those are good modes.

Ooo

It's *weird* that it has that name. The 11th harmonic is almost exactly half way between a 4 and a sharp 4. Like literally 49 cents. One of those things where you hear about it, and don't check. ;) I love the 11th harmonic, btw, but it doesn't feel like a fourth or a tritone.

@@themennissvids Yeah, hence "most closely approximates", given the nature of 12-TET tuning. If one wanted though, you could retune a keyboard (or refret a guitar, etc. etc.) in order to get that microtonal inflection to specifically have the exact microtones of the harmonic series, though it'd be limited to a specific 7-note scale unless you extended it to include the first occurence of each note closest to its 12-tone relative.

besides just the 11th, i don’t mind saying that it’s somewhat represented by the tritone, as it’s the closest we have in 12edo. the 13th is where it’s not entirely accurate, however, as that would most closely be matched by the minor sixth, not the major one. the major sixth is used because it represents the 27th harmonic, which is more commonly used as a tension, even in microtonal music, than the 13th

@@sihplak have you ever seen the weird wavy frets on some of Steve Vai's guitars

Agreed! Interestingly it’s the negative of melodic minor (i - V7, or i6 - V7 more specifically).

A fellow Great Pumpkin Waltz enjoyer, I see

Well described, it’s my favourite, I keep using it in my compositions haha

I wish this wasn't fucking gibberish to me.

Dire Dire docks from Mario 64 is in G Mixolydian b6 IIRC

You might want to get a refund.

That's cause you didn't minor in music

@@jeshaiahbretz4320 that's fucking great.

@@jeshaiahbretz4320 Ha, nice 🤣

Same, never learned about these other modes in music school!

yes!!

I don't know about jazz, they're great melodic modes. They pop up in Arabic music as the Hijaz and Nikriz maqams as well as Eastern European folk music traditions a lot.

@@RusNad Yeah I am familiar with their usage in Eastern European and Middle Eastern music (+ flamenco where the Phrygian dominant has a prominent role). I am specifically curious about the possibilities offered by jazz. The Dorian #4 looks particularly interesting and challenging to me. Let's do a quick run through the diatonic chords: Dorian #4 - D E F G# A B C D F A C - Dm7 E G# B D - E7 F A C E - Fmaj7 G# B D F - G#dim7 A C E G# - Am(maj7) B D F A - Bm7b5 C E G# B - Cmaj7#5 What would the options be for jazz harmony? It seems to me that the key tensions are in those chords with the G#, so we need to emphasize that note like we would do in Lydian , or like we vamp on the half-step movement in Phrygian between the tonic and the b2. The question is about comping ideas that sound good in jazz but at the same time manage to reveal the personality of the scale. I enjoy tension a lot so I'd try including the min(maj7) and the maj7#5 chords, but it's by no means an easy task.

Dude, I just posted about this. Lately I've been obsessed with modes of the harmonic minor. Those are two of my favorites, but I also want to shout out Lydian #2.

@@rome8180 Yeah Lydian #2 is also fun, all modes are worth exploring and have something to offer. What I think is important to remember though is that modal jams and compositions should be approached differently with regards to harmony. What I tried to do above is apply functional harmony and perhaps that's not the best way to do things. If the mindset is modal, we can't stray far from the tonic. Maybe I should revisit one of Rick Beato's old videos on "exotic" scales and modes.

Might have resembled Rhapsody in Blue @ one point . The rest was sheer unfamiliar fun.

This

So do I! It's actually more of a locrian mode with a natural 2, since the chord built on it is a min9b5

@@tinienne_rock2214 yes, that is what I learned it as through Mark Levine Jazz Piano Book, in there the b9 (locrian) vs. 9 (aeolian -5) is discussed quite a bunch but I was never sold that either of them is better than the other. It depends on the situation, but I use aeolian -5 more than locrian over half-diminished chords (I use them both though)

yeah it sounds like he overlooked that when he was talking about melodic minor

Finally found a commenter that also noticed this. Thank goodness I'm not alone 😅

From what I understand that is how classical theory utilizes melodic minor, but outside of classical music is played the same descending as it is ascending. He's not wrong, he's just coming from a different musical background.

@@ilodar5684 It's even used in both directions in some classical music: Vivaldi's "Summer" (3rd movement Presto) and Bach. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-RVRsFzcBJhY.html&ab_channel=MusicTheoryForGuitar

In jazz, the melodic minor scale is only referring to the ascending melodic minor - it is really only used for this purpose he is showing. The descending scale isn't used because it already has a name - Aeolian

Nostalgia

@@weakw1ll haha the NOSTALGIA note lol

@@cookiecoderbt yessss lmfao

???

Is calling it #1 funny to anyone else?

Exactly, for me Super locrian is an Augmented scale, a perfect fit for a V7#9 (#5)

​@@KittSpiken yes it is, it just break the rule of always play the Major scale of the One (I) in a II V

@@spickeys5078 got to break some egg rules to make a joke omelet

Oh interesting, my college’s jazz theory class called it the altered scale

Doesn't flattening the 7 kind of defeat the purpose of raising the 4?

@@horurmartomasson1041 Where does "purpose" enter into anything? Also, I'm not sure I get your reasoning anyway.

@@rome8180 I don't remember what I was thinking when I asked this 10 months ago, but I suspect I had some kind of brain fart. There's nothing wrong with Dorian #4. Maybe I had been writing something in Lydian and thought "Oh, no! You took away the nice vii chord that you got from raising the 4!", not realizing that ♭VII+ has its merits too.

When I first tried this scale, I raised the 3rd degree of minor*, without any other change, aka barely major. It's probably my favorite scale with a major 3rd. Now I know the name of it. *Didn't knew any other minor than natural minor back then

Yeah, super locrian js kinda like that too. Someone asks “does it have a flat nine? Or a sharp nine? Does it have a flat 5? Or a sharp 5?”. And you reply “yes.”

If you do a flat 3, 4,5,6,7 I think that works out.

technically most carnatic ragas can be "translated" as western scales, although the same can't be said for maqams. i agree that that would be a really interesting series of video topics. also want to bring up the pelog & slendro gamelan tunings!

12tone did

What.

Great idea - like Bach preludes and fugues but for modes

Well that's not melodic minor. Also I've heard of that scale but doesn't sound like it's actually used. Cuz a bare minimum of songs would have that, and then again people would probably explain it to you differently. If u go up minor and descend major you would only miss out on the b9 and the b5. Doesn't sound practical to me but again I could be wrong.

Technically yes, the ascending melodic minor goes 1-2-b3-4-5-6-7-8, and the descending one goes 1-2-b3-4-5-b6-b7-8. But you might have noticed, the descending form is just the natural minor scale; it seems to me to be a case similar to the "no parallel fifths/octaves" rule, which well, probably meant something in the past, now it doesn't lol. Citing Wikipedia: -Composers have not been consistent in using the two forms of the melodic minor scale. -In jazz, only the ascending form of the scale is termed as "melodic minor". Honestly, you could use this theory, especially if you want to avoid augmented or diminished triads in your harmony (so you switch back to the natural minor whenever that would happen, thus getting a chord with a 5th), but it's really up to the composer. I remember learning the Melodic minor like this (ascending/descending), but even my teacher told me "just play it how you want to; this is music theory, not music legislature".

Yeah, that's what melodic minor means in classical; but jazz theory seems to stick to the same notes.

Sounds like chick corea

Ionian b3 :)

To this day, classical Arabic music is defined by tetrachords rather than scales.

John Williams scores are a great reference -the E.T. Score is FULL of the Lydian mode and the Star Wars stuff too for example

Stargate. search sg1 theme it's in the minor 5th.