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IntroductionThe diatonic scale has been used consistently in this document as the leading example of a tonal scale, and with good reason. The vast majority of Western music of the last few centuries has been diatonic. It has two stable and effective tonalities (Do-mode and La-mode). Diatonic music sounds good. People like it. They pay money to listen to it. It's the musical system that most beginners want to learn, and need to learn before they can proceed to understanding any other aspects of tonality or atonality. If the goal of a proposed system of presenting and controlling musical information is to make music easier to teach, learn, and play, then it must emphasize the diatonic scale. Nonetheless, there are other tonal scales, and they too are well-supported by the ThumMusic System. Let's look at them next. Non-Diatonic ScalesThe Diatonic Scale is the most common scale used in Western music, but it is by no means the only scale.[27] Other scales can be usefully presented and controlled using the ThumMusic System. The Diatonic ScaleFigure 50 shows a 12-tet clock-face drawing of the diatonic scale. The diatonic scale is symmetrical around Re – that is, balanced on either side of Re – on both the circular clock-face drawing and on the ThumField. The diatonic scale has two stable tonalities: Do-mode (the major scale) and La-mode (the minor scale). Figure 50
The Pentatonic ScaleThe Pentatonic Scale is a subset of the diatonic scale, in which the notes forming a tritone (Fa and Ti) are eliminated. The result is symmetrical around Re, with two stable tonalities: Do-mode (pentatonic major) and La-mode (pentatonic minor). Because the scale contains no tritone, it's not possible to play a “wrong note” in the pentatonic scale, which is perhaps one of the reasons it is widely used in improvisation. Figure 51
The Neapolitan ScaleThe Neapolitan Scale is also symmetrical around Re, with stable tonalities: Re-mode (Neapolitan Minor) and So-mode (Neapolitan Major). The tight clustering of the minor seconds around Re makes the Neapolitan scale very similar to a whole-tone scale. Figure 52
The Melodic ScaleThe Melodic Scale, like the others shown herein, is symmetrical around Re, and has two stable tonalities: Re-mode (melodic major) and So-mode (melodic minor). Figure 53
The Double Harmonic ScaleThe Double Harmonic Scale has two stable tonalities: Re-mode (Double Harmonic Major) and So-mode (Gypsy Minor). This fascinating scale, much used in Eastern European music, has a wide variety of minor, major, and augmented seconds in it. Figure 54
Asymmetric ScalesThe Harmonic Major Scale and the Harmonic Minor Scale are not shown herein. Neither is symmetrical around Re. These scales, like the symmetrical scales, also have the same fingering in all meantone tunings. SummaryAny given tonal scale – not just the diatonic scale – has the same “shape” in every key in the ThumMusic System, as do all sequences and combinations of intervals from that scale. The tonal intervals are tightly clustered – and often symmetrical – around Re. Previous - The ThumMusic PLUS System Next - Alternative Meantone Tunings [27] There are far fewer tonally-useful scales than one might imagine, however. Most of the “scales” one hears about are actually just different modes of a much smaller number of scales (using this document's definition of scales and modes). See Andrew Milne's The Tonal Centre (http://www.andymilne.dial.pipex.com/Scales.shtml) for more information on tonal scales. |
