Everything that spills out past the seven diatonic notes.
Overview
The scales that live outside the seven diatonic Modes — eight notes covering the altered minors, the pentatonics, and the symmetrical scales, each documented with its structure, its character, and its use in practice.
The altered minors first: the Harmonic Minor, with a knife hidden in its raised seventh, and the Melodic Minor, a major scale that never got over its lowered third. Then the pentatonics, where subtraction does the work — the Major Pentatonic, five notes that cannot make a wrong sound, and the Minor Pentatonic, five notes carrying a whole century of feeling. Add one bruise of a blue note to the latter and you have the Blues Scale.
The symmetrical scales close the set: the Chromatic Scale, every door in the building at once; the Whole Tone scale, a staircase where every step is the same height; and the Diminished scale, alternating patience and menace.
Related
- Scales & Modes — the parent index
- Modes — the seven diatonic rotations
- Musical Keys — the keys the scales are transposed into