Talk:Jazz scale
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
What are those classical composers doing in the first paragraph? The point of the first paragraph is to point out that a jazz scale is typically nothing more than an ordinary western scale with an additional note inserted to "jazzify" it. The first paragraph should be lean and mean in that sense, not digressing to notable classical composers. 209.90.231.82 (talk) 05:40, 23 May 2008 (UTC)
My recent edit merely corrected what was an oversight, I'm sure. Modes can be presented in relative (same pitch classes) or in parallel terms (same letter-name scale degrees). Both are handy didactic terms and it's easy to confuse them, which is what happened here on the 2nd and 7th degrees: it is the parallel Phrygian #6 and Super Locrian of C melodic minor that take a C7 sus b9 and a C7 #9 b13, respectively, but the rest of the presentation is relative to C melodic minor.
I wonder if it isn't worth pointing out why the ascending melodic minor scale is such a powerful tool: We divide 12 chromatic tones into 7 "letter-name" steps. Assuming no interval greater than the enharmonic equivalent of a major second, that necessarily produces 5 whole steps and 2 half steps (5 x 2) + 2 = 12. There are only three ways to do this:
1. separate the 1/2 steps as much as possible, i.e. by 2 & 3 whole steps (W W H W W W H). This yields the traditional diatonic modes.
2. group the 1/2 steps together (W W W W W H H). This is the enharmonic equivalent of a whole tone scale with one of the half-steps filled in, and yields a set of modes where "minor" sounds and "major" sounds are both present in extremes. (Think of a major scale with b2 and b3, or a Lydian scale with a b6 and b7.)
3. The middle ground: separate the 1/2 steps by 1 & 4 whole steps (W H W W W W H).
The ascending melodic minor scale is how this last option has traditionally been used. In a minor context, a composer wanted a melody to "rise" to the tonic, via step-wise approach to the leading tone. I don't think it is an accident that this formulation began as a melodic convention and was only much later (and unwittingly) incorporated into a harmonic scheme. We tend to forget that, historically speaking, harmony is a (contrapuntal) emergent property. Sinnis 14:43, 6 February 2007 (UTC)
