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Guitar Wholetone Scale
Guitar Wholetone Scale
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M TRA0I( BECofrD The sound of thevholo tone scale iB Derhaps mt as commonly associated with genres such as rocl and blues as it ls with
, 1.o o. trrion styles [ouo; it is iGtartly rccogl sauc in the molody t0 tho trne ]ao Plaoo Uke lhmc, from Grug llom's album r060ecthr l
.-l lshrapnel Becords). Howo ls a rock/fusion guitarist who's oross€d over into doing sessions for some ofthe biggest names in rock and pop.
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[8ars 6-12]This particular passage show5 how onc€ you have sedu<edthe on the use of 7b5 arpeggios (from bar 6 to bar 10)- ln bar 11, a six-note figure
listener into accepting the whole tone scale,you.an Iingeron it as long as comprising thirds is cy<led down throughrhe s<ale. Each motif(indicated
the musical logic ofyour lines is strong enough (the listener's ear wlllaccept in th e tra nlcription) comprises a descending major third, followed by an
it as sou nd ing 'correct'). This can be done by exploiting the symmetry oflhe ascending major third, followed bya descending majorthjrd (notethat only
scale to generate 'themes' which can be developed by shiftinqthem up and/ the firstfour notes ofthe third motif are played). Finally, bar 12 is d€voted to
ordown in various combinations of tone intervals, such as a majorseconds shifting an arbitrary six-note arpegg io shape in an ascending and descending
(one tone), majorthirds (two tone), diminished fifths (three tones), minor sixths manner up the neck.There is a long complicated nameforeach one ofthere
(fourtones)and minor sevenths (five tones)etc. This section is based mainly arpeggios, butthey were simply d€rived byexperimenting )
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B 9- 11-7-4-7- 1s-11_
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E wholeione -
A minor pentdtonic ----------aL
E 1 2- l 6-1 4-10-1 4
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with various convenientfi ngerings, and you should try€xperimenting with IBars l4-161 You may have notic€o ii"- :
some ofyour own shapes as well. Tonrh,solostud) havebeerl,fted,o, .
lBar I3l As previously mentioned, it's important that we resolve each E whole th€wholetonescaleoveranaugmented.horc.- :
tone idea with something that relates backto our'home' chord of A minor. how the same ideas workjus! as well in a different .:
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ln this case, the previous seven bar E whole tone section is resolved back 6nishes offwith a simpleyet effe€tiveVan Halen styler.pir : : :
to Am by playing this four-notes per-string A rninor pentatonic idea, which to the whole tone scale whi(h is shlfted in tones laterally dov/n _: : ii!
inco pordres borh pic(irg and f'Fri ng ha.ld ldpping. before inishing on an A root note, to correspond with the ina Am,:tr.r::
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A minor pentatonic -
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nhythln chaltge$
Maybe play it as uptempo swingor, ifit's a
fasttune, try it as a ballad. Write a new
melody over tle sequence - try mming up
with (or adapting) a Charlie Parker style
bebophead, or perhaps something slowand
In 1930, George Gershwin unwittingly created wistful, You may find at ttre end of it you're
bebop's defining progression.Welcome to the wild left with something largely unrecognisable
ftom the odginal. In fact, that's probably
and wi y world of 'rhythm changesi.. advisable, as coplright laryers aren't
generally renowned for their forbearance...
Anyway, back to the matter in hand.
chromatic approach notes and Rhlthm changes have proved particularly
staggering back and forth over fetile grcund for bebop musicians, as Track
the bebop bridge, not to Record suggests. and this month we regoing
mention self-consciously to be examining the basic rh1'thm changes
splitting infi nitives. This form in its most often used key, Bb, and
month, however, we're discussing some common variations. The
throwing all caution, sequence is a 3z bar, AABA form divided into
trepidation and prudence to I bar sections - Example r demonstrates the
thewinds, donning our basic Gershwin progression, while Example 6
speedos and diving swan-like featurcs some ofthe commonbebop changes.
into the bop wellspring as we The initialAsection (Examples 2 to S) is
tackle perhaps the archet,?al esseltiallya mioi AABA form in itself,
progression of bebop - the comprised ofa couple of short I-\I-II-V
sequence klown as 'rhlthm progressions (in Bb, the chords Bb G7 lCmT
changes'. F7 lBb G7 lCmT F7 I played twice) followed
The rhythm changes are bya I-r7-rv-#rvdim orb nb7 lEb Ebdim l)
basically the chord and another I-VI-II-V, although oD the two
progression from the 1930 subsequent A sections ofthe form the last
George and Ira Gershwin tune two bars revert to variations ofa I-V-I ( lBb
I Got Rhlthm - the name Fz lBb l). The B section revisits ourold
Iiterally rcferring to the chord friend the bebop bddle (lDZ Dz c7 G7 C7
changes of I Got Rhlthm - but lC7 F7 F7 ), which u'e covered ertensively
over time it's become removed back in GT17o, 17r and 172, and ultimately
fTom its Gershwin roots to be leads us rather agreeably backto Bb for the
more recognised as a form in firalAsection. fl
itsown ght, much like the
12-barblues. lJ Iate ttre ctrord pnogresslon
The use ofthe rhlthm
of an existing standard, give it
changes progression in jazz is
a prime example of something a harmonic polish, paste a new
lorown as contrafact - the melody line on top and then
process of taking an existing
sequence, giving it a bit of a
harmonic spit and polish,
collect allthe royalties t,
pasting a new melody line on GETTHETONE
m top and collecting all the royalties for
i.t:
www
yourself, Contmfact is particularly associated
OOOO Moderate/Advanced with bebop, and many famous bop tunes are
tK!I!b
!!!S wuturnovrvoun
TSoloingvorabLla,y
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based on the progressions ofpopular
standards - eg Charlie Parker's Omithology R€VERA
(basedon How High The Moon), Ko Ko You can use any sound you feel is appropriate
TTEMPOT 200bpm gl Harmonic knowledqe
(Cherokee) and Donua Lee (Indiana). forthe ideas here. Fora good classicjazz
I 67'79 ti
CD: TRACKS lazz repertoire
I'd encourage you to experiment with 50und, usethe guitar's neck pickupwith the
O\ERTHE PAST few columns we've been contmfact - it's a great compositional tone controlrolled offto around 3 or4 (or take
dipping our metaphorical toes, somewhat exercise. Take, say, a Beatlestu[e andmess the treble down on the amp), and set upa
gingerly, into bebop's seething waters - witl the sequence a little - domiDant 7ths warm alean tone on youramp.Thick strings
furtively suweilling the oeur.'re of Charlie resolving to every possible chord, II chords in work better, as does a hollowbody guitar, but
Parker, crudely shaping bop lines fi'om front ofdominant tumarounds at the neitherareessential.
elemental motifs, hazily tangling over end ofthe progression,
^hs, substitutions - you
TXACI( BEC0BD ?he rhythmchanges hauehecomo the basis for numerorcJazz standards including I Got Rhythm itself (from uhich th3 term
was derived), AnthropoloEy,/Ihriving fr0m A Biff, 0loo, Cotton Tall, Celepity, An oscar Fon lheadwell, Moos€ The liloooh, Ihxterlty, Lester l.3aps
ln, Straigmcn Up And lly niglrt, Salt Peanuts, Susoone and, uould you belieyo, meet The tllntstoncsl
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R]|YTHll/l CHAIIGI$ t_tARiltil0 zoilt
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Examples 2to 5 demonstrates some common, interchangeablevatiationson lVl li V (or turnaround); it's a good example ofthe standard jazz pra.tice of
the A section of rhythm change5. The 6rst sequence is something of a bebop putting a V chord in front ofevery chord possible (and often a ll chord in front
blueprintforthis section on which the othervariations arebased - noti.e how ofthat'see Ex3)- The main change in bars 5 and 6 is to the final(hord which,
the addition of the G7 in bar'l turns the repeating two-bar sequenae into a similarly to bar 6 ofthejazz blues sequence, commonly becomes an Edim7.
Cm7
)
February 201 0 Guitarl'ecluriques 77
-l I
8 BARS - CDTRACXT4
The variation in Example 4 comes in bars 5 to 8, with an Fm7 introduced beforethe Bb7 to give us a ll-V-linto Eb, and a b5 subtitutionforthe llchord in bar8,
CD TRACK 76
This examplefeatures a great chromatic ascending sequence, with the BdimT bar6, with Ab7 substituting forthe EbmT (you could also leave it in on beat 3
acting as a sub for G7b9 and the C*dim7 acting as a sub for A7b9, which togiveavery shortll-V)and leaving us with a rather pleasjng four- ba r series of
resolves to the Dm7 chord in bar 3.The other big chanqe is the last chord in ll-Vs leading back to Bb.