Music scales

[evil^milk]

There are about 470 music scales in total, and that isn't counting in all tones.

So far, I only know the major, minor, pentatonic, blues, diminished, and whole tone scales.

I think that if you had a reference of all of them, you'd be able to improvise with a much more interesting approach, and your compositions would rule.

But where do I find them? I've looked on the nets and downloaded a few softwares, but so far there isn't a complete guide to all of them.

If you have some software, book, or reference to any (preferably all) of the scales (excluding major, minor, pentatonic, blues, dim, and whole tone) pleas post it here.

A few helpful links:

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm
http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/piano/ (about 180 of 'em here)

 

[Pulse]

I use this for guitar scales;

http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/guitar_scales.php

 

[CrazyHarij]

the pianoworld one is really helpful. has most decent scales. the thing is you dont have much other than those scales to work with if you want to make a good track unless you use them toghether, extended chords, jazz intervals etc, learn the circle of fifths and play around alot. most great tunes/progressions don't use a particular scale but mix harmony and dissonance.

 

[Qhartb]

Honestly, the "more and more scales" approach isn't going to make you a better musician. Make the most of what you've got. If you know all the ins and outs of all the modes of the major, melodic minor, diminished, and whole-tone scales, you're probably one of the better musicians in your area.

When you're comfortable with that, learn the relationship between individual notes or groups of notes (such as tetrachords), so that when you have some sonority in your ear and it's not one of the modes you're already familiar with, you can figure out on the fly what the notes are.

If you're really dead set of the "more and more scales" idea, check out "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" by Nicolas Slominsky. It's said that John Coltrane would practice out of it. I personally think that it's okay for inspiration and great for practicing every possible melodic pattern on your instrument--if you can play everything in it then any possible melody is just parts of stuff in the book combined in different ways--but there are much easier ways to become a much better musician than you would exhaustively learning new scales.

 

[Que-Ever]

My friend likes MADD scales.

Atleast, I think that's what they're called. Maybe it's a chord.

 

[evil^milk]

the pianoworld one is really helpful. has most decent scales. the thing is you dont have much other than those scales to work with if you want to make a good track unless you use them toghether, extended chords, jazz intervals etc, learn the circle of fifths and play around alot. most great tunes/progressions don't use a particular scale but mix harmony and dissonance.

Yep, I agree that msot great tunes use a combination of scales, rather than just one scale for the entire song.

I'll have to look of the definitions of harmony and dissonance, though.

 

[evil^milk]

If you're really dead set of the "more and more scales" idea, check out "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" by Nicolas Slominsky. It's said that John Coltrane would practice out of it.

Will check it out.

I personally think that it's okay for inspiration and great for practicing every possible melodic pattern on your instrument--if you can play everything in it then any possible melody is just parts of stuff in the book combined in different ways--but there are much easier ways to become a much better musician than you would exhaustively learning new scales.

I don't intend on exhaustively memorizing/learning all 470 of them by any chance, I just would like to have a reference to them, as you say, for inspiration, and to explore more melodic possibilites.

What are the easier ways of becoming a better musician besides scale learning though? I'm interested in knowing your knowledge on this.

 

[theotherguy]

I like the major pentatonic scale the best.

It sounds very..Indian, very cool. It sounds especially good if played on a clean guitar with alot of bending.

Playing blues in harmonic minor is also intriguing.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Will check it out.



I don't intend on exhaustively memorizing/learning all 470 of them by any chance, I just would like to have a reference to them, as you say, for inspiration, and to explore more melodic possibilites.

What are the easier ways of becoming a better musician besides scale learning though? I'm interested in knowing your knowledge on this.

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/jazz-chord-progressions.html

just play, find out what you like, experiment, have fun, learn new instruments, its really about exploring and finding out what you want to convey with your music. the most important part of music isn't the scales/melodies but the sound itself, that's what people hear. you can make a great track with using mostly different octaves of the same notes, or use plain noise. the beat and what you use to play your melodies is just as important as the melodies themselves. smoke on the water is one of the easiest riffs around but it won't be the same played on a violin or a synth pad it's the distorted guitar sound that makes it what it is.

as for harmony and dissonance, it's about using the right wrong notes, what sounds good yet interesting. try adding an A (or incorporate in F major chord/ F dominant 7th) in a melodic minor C scale, it's very common. you can do the same with any note, it's all about the feeling you want to achieve. dissonance and odd chords are great for renewing a progression that gets stale over time. try using different chords in a progression youve played a few times, a common thing in jazz is to exchange the tonic for a 3rd in a scale, for instance using E minor instead of C major.

so if you got a typical jazz sequence; Cmaj7->Am7->Dm7->Gmaj7, you can exchange the Cmaj7 for an Em7.

If you learn the cycles of fifths you can take it further, for instance the fifth (or fourth depending on whether you're going up or down the octave) of C is G, which is regarded as the strongest tonical progression. V-I (i.e the fifth major to the tonic major) is the most common progression in pop music, with variations like IV-V-I.

Say you got a progression where you go like, Cmaj7-Fmaj7->Cmaj7->Fmaj7 on the octave below. You can then exchange the Cmaj7 for an Emin7. to spice up the Emin7, throw in a Bmin7 as the fifth right before you hit the Emin7. It'll sound pretty jazzy and funky. This is just an example of what you can do to freshen things up. A great sequence will mostly sound the best if it sticks out in the middle of alot of variation. That's the whole point of verses between choruses. The same sequence won't sound the same played repeatedly for 5 minutes as between changes, transpositions, some dissonance if you will, etc.

It's important however not to follow all the rules, but it's good to learn this stuff so you have an idea of what you're actually doing when you're playing a sequence, and of course know where and when you should break the rules. I can't imagine any better rule of thumb than, if it sounds good, it is good.

 

[Ghostphase310]

more scales make the song more out there. no one wants to hear same shit over and over


STeve!

 

[evil^milk]

Thanks Qhart and Crazy, your posts have been of great help.