Other Scales

Home / Learning Library / Music Theory / Other Scales

Chapter 4 · Lesson 07

In short

Not every scale has seven notes. The pentatonics have five, the blues six, the whole-tone six equal ones, and the chromatic all twelve. Five scales you hear everywhere, from rebetiko to rock, and what makes them work.

Lesson Notes

01The pentatonics

Take the major scale and remove the two notes that make its semitones, the 4th and the 7th. Five remain: C D E G A. That is the major pentatonic. With no semitones, no note "rubs" against its neighbour, which is why the pentatonic sits on almost any chord of the key and is the first scale people learn to improvise with.

C major pentatonic: the major scale without its 4th and 7th

Two leaps of three semitones where the major scale had its semitones.

The same with the natural minor: remove the 2nd and the 6th and the minor pentatonic remains, C E♭ F G B♭. The two pentatonics are relatives, like major and minor: A minor pentatonic has exactly the notes of C major pentatonic.

02The blues scale

The blues scale is the minor pentatonic with one extra note: the diminished 5th (in C: F♯), between the 4th and the 5th. That one note, the "blue note", gives all the colour.

C blues: the minor pentatonic with the blue note

Six notes. The two semitones in a row, F-F♯-G, are what makes it blues.

03Whole tone and chromatic

The whole-tone scale has six notes, all a tone apart: C D E F♯ G♯ A♯. Because all its intervals are the same, it has neither a leading note nor a clear tonic: it sounds suspended, dreamlike, which is how film music uses it. There are only two whole-tone scales, one from C and one from C♯, and every other is one of those two.

The chromatic scale has all twelve notes, all a semitone apart. It is not the scale of a piece; it is the material every other scale is built from. On the bouzouki it is also the simplest under the hand: one fret per note.

At a glance

ScaleNotesFrom C · where you hear it

Major pentatonic5C D E G A · folk songs, rock, improvisation

Minor pentatonic5C E♭ F G B♭ · rock and blues solos

Blues6C E♭ F F♯ G B♭ · blues, jazz, rock

Whole tone6C D E F♯ G♯ A♯ · film music, impressionism

Chromatic12all the notes · passing runs, ornaments, technique

All five are on the Scales tab of the 4-course and 3-course pages, in the family "Other scales", and in the Scales and Modes catalogue.

Recap

Major pentatonic: the major scale without its 4th and 7th. Minor pentatonic: the natural minor without its 2nd and 6th. Relatives of each other.
Blues: the minor pentatonic with the diminished 5th, the blue note.
Whole tone: six tones in a row, no tonic, suspended.
Chromatic: all twelve notes, one fret each.