The Scales That Built Jazz 

There's also an F Bebop dominant scale in Chopin's Gm Ballade, and it's used to outline an F7 just like it would in Bebop!

Hi

I think you have to do it both ways, for contrast , like major and minor, one without the other is kinda missing the point, same with a groove within a melody, when you expect chord tones on down beats and you get the opposite it tickles your intellect . 😂😵‍💫

Isn't that how the vast, vast majority of music theory was codified?

Elias Simon yes and no. In jazz absolutely. In classical sometimes the theory was codified after the fact but other times the composers were theorists and the theory came from their treatises essentially explaining how they conceptualized theory as they were writing. It just depends

I was just going to say that. Jazz improvisers didn't really start thinking chord-scale relationships till the post-bop era. Mike Longo and Hal Galper seem to be the only well known educators around teaching bebop as it was played, and I definitely feel indebted to them for that.

Nate P Don't forget out god Barry Harris. But his theories are very.. different.

Nate P Don't forget our god Barry Harris. But his theories are very.. different.

Using that figure to accompany the statement that “All this emphasis on structure isn’t meant to imply that bebop soloists were just repeating formulas” is really brilliant.

Yo that was so brilliant. This guy is a boss

The video i need.

Is this loss?

Nightmare903 😨😨😂😂😂

brain

2: The sonochromatic scale: starting at F on the chromatic scale, you pair the primary, secondary, and tertiary colours of light with each note, starting with red, so red is F, orange is F sharp, yellow is G, and so on.

3) nice touhou pfp

LMAO

underrated comment

It's just a Dorian tonality vamp that goes between two min11 chords a whole note apart and repeats this pattern but the key is half step up for a little while before returning to the original progression. Chord voicing usually formed from four notes stacked in intervals of a perfect fourth. The slow progression, sparse hits, and the ambiguous quality (with regard to harmonic function) of quartal chords expresses the sound of the whole dorian mode in just a couple chord hits, freeing a soloist from outlining chord changes and letting him explore the mode/other musical language in a less restrictive and more leisurely fashion.

Hugh Freeman saying So What is “just a Dorian tonality vamp . . . between two min11 chords” is like saying Picasso just used blue paint during his ‘blue period.’ 😉

Peter LeRoy Barnes wow this is very interesting. I feel however that I’m going to have to do some homework to fully understanding what you are talking about 😅

So if I understand you right, the tool takes 2 descriptions of a 4-note chord: as notes of the 12-equal chromatic scale, and as degrees of a heptatonic mode that's a subset of 12-equal. And it returns all the heptatonic subsets of 12-equal in which the chord has the same description, yes? So in other words, the chord tones are constant and divide the octave into 4 segments. The number of non-chord tones in each segment is constant. But the chromatic position of the non-chord tones within the segment can vary. Then the 5 tetrachords embedded in 7-TUT are: all 3 non-chord tones in the same segment; 2 in a segment and 1 in the segment (before|after|opposite) it; all 3 in separate segments. And then the chord has 4 inversions, i.e. any one of the 4 chord tones can be its lowest note. (And the heptatonic scale has 7 modes, each of which assigns a different degree number to said lowest note.) But here you lose me. I still have no idea what is signified by whatever values I might plug into the configuration cells of your sheet. I cannot by hook or crook figure out where you get 43 from. And anyway, not every 7-TUT tetrachord is a possible realization of every chromatic tetrachord -- if the heptatonic description says there are 2 non-chord tones between the 3rd and 4th notes of the chord, but the chromatic description says there's a major second between them, there are no heptatonic scales that can satisfy both. I'll probably think a bunch more about how to enumerate the chromatic tetrachords that are compatible with each heptatonic tetrachord or vice versa, but in the mean time could you explain the sheet and the number 43 for me?

So, when I mentioned there being 5 tetrachords in 7-TUT, I mean it in the same way that there are 66 Heptatonic scales in 12-TET, 43 Tetrachords in 12-TET, etc. Really, I'm talking about something analogous to pitch-class sets within 7-TUT. There are 20 distinct ways you can select 3 from 6, "nCr(6, 3)." In 7-TUT, use the 1st note as the root of a tetrachord, and then pick any three other notes out of the six remaining. There are 20 ways this can be done. (This is all 20, but you can change the root of it to give you the full 140 options. We will not be doing this, though. The purpose of this is to list types of chords, not individual ones.) Now, list these 20 possible tetrachords, and group them by ones that are inversions of each other. This is done in the same way you translate pitch-class sets, often visualized in a circle of 12 dots/circles. We translate each tetrachord, one at a time, to find the matching groups. You can calculate that, because each tetrachord has 4 inversions (the root inversion and 3 others), and because this must be all combinations of a root and 3 other notes, there must be 5 groups of 4 chords, one chord for each possible root/inversion. These are the 5 tetrachords I was talking about. This list is used together with another list which can be constructed in exactly the same way within 12-TET: the list of 4-note pitch-class sets. That is also, essentially, a list of tetrachords, but a more finely divided one, in a sense. By the way, that list of tetrachords, within 12-TET, can be found here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pitch-class_sets in the left column, after the 1-, 2-, and 3- note lists of pitch-class sets. Allan Forte's numbering, as well as Rahn's, count the pitch-class sets that are mirrors of each other as being the same, but with an added letter or B. In this way,, pitch-class-set 4-z29B is not the 29th tetrachord in 12-TET, but the 43rd. In the context these numbers were created in, it was useful to mark mirrored sets as the same. The point of my tool, as you correctly gathered, is to consider all Heptatonic scales, within 12-TET, that allow for both the 7-TUT and 12-TET descriptions of a tetrachord to be simultaneously correct: that the 12-TET intervals in the chord are present, and the number of notes, exclusively in such a heptatonic scale, are consistent with the names of the notes in the 7-TUT description. A Major 7 chord could be made enharmonically in numerous different heptatonic scales, but which ones say that it's made of a root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th, as well? That is the nature of this project. Interestingly, the fact that the 12-TET and 7-TUT descriptions of tetrachords are unrelated means that you have to include which mode is being used. (Inversions work the same way in 12-TET as in 7-TUT.) Because the important part of this modality comes from where each description of tetrachord is relative to the other, you only need to count modes in one of the groups of sets of tetrachords. You can make the 5 in 7-TUT into a 20 or the 43 in 12-TET into a 172. For at least one reason, it makes more sense to take the 20 tetrachords in 7-TUT. Either way, the number of combinations of 12-TET with 7-TUT descriptions of tetrachords is 5*43*4, which is 860. Make sure to look at the tool linked in my original comment to see how this all works together.

OK, I made sense of the 43. The 4 chord tones partition 12-equal into 4 spans of non-chord tones, each of which may be as small as 0 (i.e. two chord tones are a half step apart) as long as the total length of the spans is 8. So I started with partitions of 8 into 4 or fewer addends. But some of the partitions are equivalent to each other by rotation, and when I strike out those redundancies, 43 are left. I have looked at the tool you linked, but I don't find it very self-explanatory. What kind of number or letter would I put in each of the configuration boxes, and what would I be asking for if I did?

The same principle that you described applies to partitioning 4 tones into 7-TUT, with 4 spans of non-chord tones as small as 0, but the total length becomes (7-4)=3. That gives 20, some of which are equivalent by rotation, giving 5. (I hadn't considered your phrasing of it. 'Span' is a very useful word, here.) The meat of the idea is in taking the two different types of spans and then asking a) whether they don't disagree [i.e, if the 7-TUT space has asks for a span greater than the 12-TET space allows for, the construction is impossible. The reverse is not the case.] and b), if they don't disagree, how many ways are there that do agree? This is the same as the question "How many scales match the patterns of both distinct descriptions of the Tetrachord?" It's important to distinguish between these types of spans. In 7-TUT, we are talking about spans of Scale-Tones between Chord-Tones. In 12-TET, we are talking about spans within the entire set of 12-TET, between Scale-Tones. I suppose the tool isn't self-explanatory, but it does hint to what the ideas are about. Perhaps that's because I was the one with the idea, and then the one that made the tool. A, B, C, D, and E are the names I gave to the 7-TUT Prime Tetrachords. (Prime refers to it being the smallest in the group of chords/sets of notes that are rotationally symmetric/equivalent.) The list of 7-TUT tetrachords is shown in the top-left, with the blue column. It includes the 'inversions' of chords (Inversion has the same meaning here as in other parts of music theory. Mathemusically, they are rotations of the prime form.) The columns labelled 1-7 denote whether the nth degree of the scale, relative to the root of the chord, is a part of that chord. [The column for 1 is sectioned off because we only want to consider chords that contain their own root, chords which have the note that is in 7-TUT unison with the root.] Next to that are columns labelled 1-4, which denote the length of the nth span, just as you talked about, for that chord. In the configuration boxes, putting in the listing for a 7-TUT tetrachord, with letter and number, gives it the 7-TUT spans for that tetrachord. In the brown configuration box, the number corresponds to which of the 43 12-TET tetrachords to consider the spans for. The tool will check 56 different possibilities of matching those spans from 12-TET and 7-TUT, asking the same questions a) and b) from earlier. This can be seen in the large area with columns 0-11, 1-4, and a condensed group of 8 other columns: The 8 condensed columns define all 56 ways to choose 3 out of 8 notes. (In 12-TET, the Tetrachord defines 4 of the 7 notes of the heptatonic scale. 8 chromatic notes remain, and 3 notes must be selected for the heptatonic scale. 8 choose 3 = 56.) Columns listed 1-4 determine whether the configuration puts more notes in the 12-TET span than are in the 7-TUT span. If there are more notes put into this configuration than are requested, the output will be 0, otherwise, it'll be 1. This is done once for each of the 7-TUT spans of the Tetrachord. If all 4 of these numbers come out to 1, then the configuration is valid. The unlabeled column on the left of the table checks for whether all 4 spans agree with the configuration. In the rows that have agreeable spans, the complete heptatonic scale will be produced as defined by that configuration (from the 56 possible choices of 8 choose 3). The 4 chord tones will be present, and 3 other ones which define an heptatonic scale. Using the root of the scale, constructing the 7-TUT tetrachord you input on that scale will give you the 12-TET tetrachord you input. This is the purpose of the tool. Further to the right, the table extends. The prime forms of the heptatonic scales are shown. (Heptatonic scales in 12-TET follow the same rules as tetrachords in 12-TET; each of them is rotationally equivalent to 6 other heptatonic scales. These are often called modes, in the same way that tetrachords call them inversions.) Because of this, it's useful to see exactly which, and how many, of the 66 heptatonic pitch-class sets contain the tetrachord, defined with 12-TET and 7-TUT. Thinking back on it, this is the perfect tool for jazz improvisation as described in the video (given enough time to practice beforehand). You would describe the 12-TET chord, then the pattern you want (typically 7-TUT tetrachord A1, the 7-chord). Improvising on any of the output scales will emphasize the chord tones in the way that you describe, and the options allow a decent freedom in the other notes.

DerSibbe F G# A# B C Db Eb E F -> C D# E# F# G Ab Bb B C So it's like Superlydian into Aeolian, but adding a leading tone That's one crazy scale my friend Leading Superlydiaeolian?

Wait, it's Superlydian Augmented with a Nat5 inserted! So it's like Superlydian Bebop, if we follow the Bebop scale patterns of ordering chord tones

... 4. It has a cool name

DerSibbe Man, this is going in my scale book, with a note of it's origin

*noice*

Yup

Love Tank!

SEE YOU LATER SPACE COWBOY

Ok

I mean, the name certainly makes sense, and connects it to some other scales that it sounds very similar to. I like it.

Hey there, I'm a dude making a scale book as a semi-dissertation Your logic is sound, I also named this scale Double harmonic Lydian

You can use any device in any context, but these do have a strong cultural association with jazz so there's a good chance that if you use them a lot you'll wind up sound jazzy. You definitely don't have to follow any other jazz rules in order to use them, though!

Chromatic notes between the 7th and the root, and between the 5th and the 6th are really common in classical music too. The only reason why in jazz these scales have their own names (and it's not just major scale + accidentals) is because they are an easy way of improvising fast over chord changes. In traditional context you would not call these differen't scales.

Great, if that is what you are intentionally going for, but it's always better to have all the options available.

Chord tones on the downbeat are more often than not used in music, regardless of the genres, including jazz. It creates a strong relation between the harmony (chords) and the melody or solo. It's the way you can get your solo to 'spell out' the changes. Now it is not always the case since there are no hard rules in music, whatever sounds good or whatever the artists fancies using. But knowing whether you're using a chord tone on the downbeat or not is definitely something useful that you should be aware of. And the bebop scales provide a useful shortcut.

Or even The Real Folk Blues/See You Space Cowboy. I'm pretty sure those two use the bebop scale to great effect. When 12Note used the Emi7 scale in the video it just clicked.

tymime Not exactly, it just brings a better chance of hitting "avoid tones" where you'd clash with the backgrounds more than you'd expect. It's great if that's the effect you want, but it also confuses the ear a bit

Because that scale puts the major 7th on the off-beat, which makes the b7 feel more like the chord tone.

Thanks!

In the abstract I'd agree, but in the context of the scales it's being used in here, it's functioning as a major 7th in a scale based off the 2nd degree of the key, so I think it's better to view it as a #1.

Snowblinded73 because thats not how it happened. bebop scales are explanations of melodic content in jazz music. the actual reason is largely chromatcism to link chord tones, the bebop scales are just composites, simplifications of that approach.

Thanks

I'm not sure I'd go that far: Their most obvious value is in descending lines, but they also have the benefit of lining up the notes in the scale with the beats of the bar (or, more precisely, the 8th notes) so they have plenty of use ascending too.

You can also get some nice diminished harmony in major using the bebop major. Barry Harris' bag.