Two-Octave Bitonal Scales

[brandonshred]

Here's a little thing I came up with last November...a method to create two-octave scales to play over complex polychords (where the octave of the chord is relevant to the placement of the scale within the octave). For example, the notes used in the scale are played in the same octave as the chord's voicing in the accompaniment. Maybe this will pique someone's interest! Let me know what you all think.

-Brandon


--brandoncolemanmusic.com--

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[Infinite Ego]

Thanks, Brandon. I'll give it a run through later and let you know how it goes.

Welcome aboard.

[dasein]

Hey, these are cool, thanks for sharing.

Does octave placement truly matter with these chords? If not, the other obvious possibility is to just create an 8 note pitch collection, and arrange them sequentially:

C C# D E F F# G A B (for the Dmaj7/Cmaj7 chord)

That's an interesting scale by itself... if you arrange it like so:

D E F F# G A B C C#

... then you have a bebop scale with both a natural and #11.

I'm stopping now.

[aliensporebomb]

Do you need one of these for full effect?
www.rondomusic.com/intrepiddual930mntred.html

Thanks for the link, I'll see what I can do.

[brandonshred]

dasein,

You could arrange them together in the same octave, but that would create a scale kind of like one of Messiaen's modes, or a collection from Slonimsky's book. Good idea though! Nothing wrong with that. My main goal here was to create the effect of playing in the same register as the voicing of the polychord. Of course this would only work if you were playing over something that was written out, or you instructed someone to play specific voicings. It kind of provides a neat sound.

aliensporebomb,

Yes, that would be awesome. I actually ordered a Selmer-Macaferri clone from Rondo a couple years ago, it is a beauty, and plays like a dream for a 200 dollar guitar!

Here's a link to a little improvisation I did today over this idea...16 measures of DMaj7/CMaj7, followed by Eb-7/CMaj7. I'm still getting used to playing in this manner, so forgive any weirdness...but I just recorded it to get an idea of the sound this provides.

dl.dropbox.com/u/12966256/Bitonal%20Two%20Octave%20Scale%20Improvisation%20%2816%20Bars%20DM7_CM7%2C%2016%20Bars%20Eb-7_CM7%29.mp3

[mirth]

I've always meant do something like this, though I've never taken it scaler approach. I've always looked at it more extension based, and then extensions on that. Also, I kind of dig hearing outside notes in a lower octave as long as they are approached correctly.

This kind of reminds me of the super arpeggio thing too, where it gets further out the farther you drift from home. Cool stuff.

[davidmgt]

Thanks for posting! I am looking forward to giving these a shot.