Scale of the Day #5: A Mystery Scale

Before you read another word try playing this week’s scale-of-the-day through on your instrument:

Written on C it’s clear that this is the major scale with a single note adjusted a semitone higher.  It’s that it’s the 5^th degree that has been adjusted that leads to the tonic chord having an augmented quality.

I’m not sure how I would go about composing with this scale, or how I would create a sense of genuine C tonality. Our western ears are attuned to the perfect 5^th defining harmonic spaces, so this scale is challenging simply because that 5^th degree does not create that expected consonance.

But even more challenging is the fact that the 5^th is augmented. When we hear these two pitches out of context we assume (and believe deeply) that we are hearing a minor 6^th, and we further project into this harmonic outline either a 2^nd inversion of a minor chord or a 1^st inversion of a major one.

It’s only when that additional note is positioned plumb between the bottom and top pitches that we hear the shape as expressing an augmented 5^th (and an augmented chord). And when we hear that augmented quality, we rarely experience it as a point of conclusion or even pause; augmented-ness  suggests being on the way to somewhere else.

On the other hand, this scale presents us with some interesting relationships: the first and last 4 notes of the scale separate out into two contrasting contours. The first is simply the default position of the major scale, while the second is the shape we associate with the 7^th, 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd notes of the melodic scale (that curly part of the pattern where two semitones get as close as they can to each other).

And the chords we can create with this scale are intense and wonderful.  Beyond moving between the I augmented and the IV major chords, and between the I augmented and the V diminished (an interesting exploration of how our diatonic expectations are stymied), we can create spectacular and fascinating complex chords. For example:

Where is this scale fun to play on the piano?  I like it a lot on E and B!

These are examples of what I call pseudo-symmetry: the pattern of white and black note is symmetrical, but the physical spacing is definitely not! But it’s a great-feeling scale in contrary motion because of that white/black pattern.

It’s also pseudo-symmetrical on F, but because the 4^th and 5^th degrees of the scale are black notes we end up having to play this scale with the thumbs on a note other than the tonic, and that feels very bewildering after a lifetime of diatonic white tonic scales. But the pseudo-symmetrical version on B flat is a delight (for the same reasons).

Finally, now we’ve explored all these positions of the scale, let’s acknowledge exactly what this scale is: the harmonic minor starting on the 3^rd degree. In jazz parlance it’s known as Ionian #5, and if you’re up with your terminology that does actually express quite a lot (it’s a major scale with the 5^th raised, therefore creating an augmented tonic).

But I’d love to get some feedback as to what this scale makes you feel, what this scale communicates. Scales that create a tonic with an augmented or diminished 5^th are in a different category to those with that expected perfect 5^th outline, and I’d love to come up with a name for these scales that don’t have the kind of tonic we are used to coming home to. Suggestions?