  
4
Other
scales
Many other forms of scales can be found in
music, including scales that do not even use the half-step and whole-step
patterns, scales unique to an ethnic or regional group, and original
or "created" scales that are created by the composer for
a specific effect.

Whole-tone
scale
Whole-tone scales
are six-note scales, each one whole step apart. One line or one
space in the staff must be skipped when writing a whole-tone scale
(remember there are seven letters to the musical alphabet). Given
the first scale degree, there may be alternate solutions to the
construction of a whole-tone scale. Do use, though, only sharps
or only flats in a single scale (do not mix sharps and flats in
a whole-tone scale). Following are versions of a whole tone scale
beginning on D:
whole-tone
scale beginning on D (all whole steps)

whole-tone
scale on D (alternate solution)

incorrect
version (mixes sharps with flats)

Claude Debussy often used the whole-tone
scale in his music:

Pentatonic
scale
Because pentatonic
scales have only five notes, there will
be two letter names missing the scale. The most common interval
pattern for a pentatonic scale is W W W+H W W+H. (W = whole
step; H = half step)
pentatonic
scale

It
might be helpful to notice that a pentatonic scale is the same as
a major scale without the fourth and seventh scale degrees (each
shown by an 'X').

As mentioned earlier in this lesson, diatonic
scales can be played entirely on the white keys of the piano. The
pentatonic scale, on the other hand, can be played entirely on the
black keys of the piano.


The pentatonic scale is used often in jazz
and other popular styles. Folksong melodies are also frequently
based on the pentatonic scale.

The remaining scales described in this lesson
are some that have been developed by twentieth-century composers
who wanted to derive their music from pitch collections other than
the traditional diatonic modes.
Octatonic
scale
The octatonic scale
is a scale
with eight pitches alternating whole and half steps. It can start
with either a whole step or half.
octatonic
scale


Synthetic
scale
a synthetic scale
is one in which the composer arranges any number of the twelve pitches
in any untraditional way. It can be created using any size steps,
including intervals smaller than the half step (common in music
of Eastern cultures).


Twelve-tone
row
The composer Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951)
developed a way of composing with the twelve pitches of the chromatic
scale held to a fixed ordering. This means that he composed by writing
notes only in the order of the composition's tone row or one of
its prescribed modifications as listed below.

Here is the beginning melody of Schoenberg's
Piano Concerto. It presents the original tone row shown in
the previous example.
Later composers took this twelve-tone technique
and expanded it to include other elements of music such as rhythm
and dynamics. Not only would the music follow the tone row order,
but it might also follow a specified order of note values and
dynamic
markings. Even these elements could be used in modified versions
such as retrograde.
Other composers might adopt the various permutations
(e.g., inversion) to a smaller melodic idea consisting of only a
few notes:

Older composers such as Johann Sebastian
Bach (1685-1750) applied these same modifications to many of their
melodies (especially in fugues) long before the twelve-tone method
was developed in the twentieth century.
Bach,
Fuga VIII

original melody
Bach,
Fuga VIII

inverted melody found later in the piece
  
|