The E 7-axis, Construct #1, Lydian Inversion Scale. This is one of those "harmonically impoverished" 2-note scales. Here, that second note is the 8/7 major second - an interval I find facinating as an alternative to the more familiar 9/8 major second.
2 comments:
I’m very, very curious about these spartan scales. Do they not stretch (and I don’t mean this in a bad way) the definition of, or the boundaries that delineate, a ‘scale’ to near breaking point?
…And how do you use, enroll, work with, them? (e.g. Do you work with them in combination with other material (scales?), or is it this ‘harmonically impoverished’ aspect that you’re interested in?)
S, tig
Greeting improvising guitarist - I really need to update my blog roll with a link to your fine blog (I read and ponder over there regularly).
There was a joke I heard in undergrad school about the composer who divided the octave into one part. When asked about it, he responded: "Octave?"
The next two scales in the current "Scale of the Day" cycle are also 2-note scales, so I'll have a chance to address your excellent questions in greater detail. You are correct in that 2-note scales exist at the very boundary of "scale" as I define it. And as far as use goes, it is the lean austerity of so few intervals that interests me as a minimalist challenge to the composer/improviser. As a listener, these spartan scales present an opportunity to focus one's attention on the harmonic qualities of an incredibly small subset of intervals. What one does with the parameters of rhythm, timbre, space, form, etc. takes on a different quality when one's harmonic options are so thoroughly blocked off.
Post a Comment