# Show me some whole tone!



## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 5, 2010)

I've been on a whole tone scale thing lately and want to hear some more stuff outside of my music collection. Really simple rules: post a tune with whole tone action going on, and the time that it's used. I'll start.



Septic Flesh - Shamanic Rite - 2:50




Adagio - Astral Pathway - 3:46, it's kind of mixed in there; more defined at 4:16




Hatfield And The North - Mumps - 1:52, 8:48




2:20, 5:51 (5:51 sounds like it could be something else, I haven't checked it)




Hatfield And The North - The Yes No Interlude - Pretty much the entire thing. 4:20-6:14, to be extra whole-toney.




Henry Cow - Beautiful As The Moon, Terrible As An Army With Banners - 0:38
(And, in case anyone's interested, there's an atonal canon at the unison from 4:33 to 6:08.)




Henry Cow - Living In The Heart of the Beast - 3:39-3:43, 4:46-4:52, 5:37, there's more, mostly short bits scattered throughout.




Alban Berg - Piano Sonata Op. 1 - A lot of it in here; 0:20, for instance.




Stevie Wonder - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life - 0:05


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## OwainXerath (Apr 5, 2010)

Especially from 2:49. Great picking workout too!


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 5, 2010)

Wow, lots of whole tone there. Thanks! I never got into King Crimson, but people show me something every now and then that gets me interested again.


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## Patriclese (Apr 5, 2010)

Whole tone . . 

Patrick Healy (ANOTHER ALBUM TRACK UP!) on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads

In the song "Borderline Bionic Beings," the main theme of the song is entirely whole tone. At one point I mix it in with Lydian just to hint at some form of root, but then it just goes back to being lost in symmetry.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 5, 2010)

Dude, I love your music. Very original, and it always goes right where my ear wants it to go.

MOAR!

Debussy - Voiles (This is _the_ whole tone example.)


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## Charles (Apr 5, 2010)

Not to thread jack, OP, and I totally apologize in advance if you take offense to the fact that I am, but how does one super-impose whole tone improvisation into a piece of music that wasn't written with it in mind? I assume it would just sound bad.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 5, 2010)

Over a dominant chord (particularly if there's no fifth in the chord), an augmented chord, or a pedal tone. One thing I like to do is run a whole tone scale through chords that have a major third in them, and have some sort of whole tone thing between the two of them. Like so:

E - E G# B
G# - G# B# D#
E whole tone: E F# G# A# B# D

Doing that through that mediant relationship works sometimes. It tends to work out a lot better if the chords sound whole-toney already, i.e. consecutive major chords that outline a whole tone scale. But this isn't what you're going for.


Or, a simple IV V:

E - E G# B
F#7 - F# A# C# E
E whole tone: E F# G# A# B# D

This, in my experience, very rarely sounds good and is hard to do.

When I compose classical stuff, I try to give one part a whole tone (or octatonic, or what have you) melody while the harmony around it does not necessarily reflect that tonality. Another thing I like to do is treat the scale as a leading tone harmony, but I don't know quite how to explain that. Either way, it's more of a compositional tool than an improvisational one.

Debussy - D'un cahier d'esquisses - 1:34

Vladimir Rebikov - Une Fête, Op.38 - No. 1, No. 6, No. 7, and a bit in No. 4.


Also, if anyone's ever seen "The Mouse And The Motorcycle", that soundtrack is full of whole tone goodness.


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## Lasik124 (Apr 6, 2010)

Cool Thread Idea Dude! unfortunately I have nothing to contribute, Not a very common scale to use, And If used it can indeed be hard to pull off ha!

But Very interesting non the less, Thanks for all the videos, Pretty cool to check out how people actually use this one!


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 7, 2010)

Lasik124 said:


> Cool Thread Idea Dude! unfortunately I have nothing to contribute, Not a very common scale to use, And If used it can indeed be hard to pull off ha!
> 
> But Very interesting non the less, Thanks for all the videos, Pretty cool to check out how people actually use this one!



You're welcome and thank you. The whole idea is to start some discussion on this wonderful scale, or at least to expose people to it.

I actually intended to put this in General Music Discussion, but I forgot I was in the theory and techniques forum. 
I guess it does just as well here.


Oh, and to expand more on Charles' question, I should get a little into augmented chords, since they are the 'tonic' chords of whole tone scales. I'm going to talk about these chords in a tonal sense, even though they may not be used as such. Whole tone music doesn't really make a lot of use of tonality, but whole tone sonorities can be interpreted in a functional sense. For instance, augmented chords are leading tone or dominant harmonies (or, perhaps, mediant in strict harmonic minor, but I won't discuss that yet). If, in the key of C major, you have a G+ chord, it's going to function the same way a G chord would function: as the V. G will do that cadential thing down to C (unless it does a deceptive thing), B will act as the leading tone, and D#, the interesting tone, acts as a sort of leading tone to the third of the tonic chord. 


```
D#-E
B--C
G--C
```

Adding the seventh of the chord doesn't change these resolutions, but you want to voice the augmented fifth above the seventh.


```
D#-E
B--C
F--E
G--C
```

I have this all illustrated here:







Notice that when resolving to a minor chord, the D# in the V+ chord has been replaced with Eb. This is simply because Eb already exists in C minor, and the resolution of that tone is not the same when going to a minor chord; whereas D# leads to E in a major resolution, D# and Eb are the same pitch, and going from one to another in a melody would sound like an anticipation rather than a resolution of a chord tone. Thus, the resolution of that augmented fifth is to jump down a minor third to the tonic pitch. The "Vsub6" thing, I got from Stefan Kostka. On a lead sheet, you'll see G+. And, of course, this all pertains to the whole tone scale because + and +7 chords are whole-tone sonorities; you can run a whole tone scale straight through those chords and be perfectly at home. Understanding how these patterns can be used as a dissonance and resolved to a consonance has helped shape my understanding of whole tone scales. Also noteworthy: augmented triads are symmetric sonorities. G+ is V+ in C, but B+ and D#+/Eb+, which contain the exact same pitches, are dominant functions in other keys (E and G#/Ab, respectively). They are enharmonically interpretable. Or, if it helps to think of it in another way, any member of an augmented triad can be a leading tone, much in the way that any member of a diminished seventh chord can be a leading tone. And, by that notion, any member of a whole tone scale can be a leading tone, as a whole tone scale can be thought of as two interlocking augmented triads:
F+ - F A C#
G+ - G B D#
F Whole tone - F G A B C# D#

Anyway, here's some more whole tone:

Hatfield And The North - Fitter Stoke Has A Bath - 5:28


I haven't really listened to The Rotters' Club (the Hatfield And The North album) much until I started this thread; there's quite a bit of whole tone in there.

Hatfield And The North - Rifferama - 1:19-1:21, same idea at 1:37


Maurice Ravel - Jeux d'eau - 0:09-0:18, 3:33


Randy Newman - Whatever this song is called. I don't know, it's from Toy Story.  Anyway, at 8:51, there's a descending augmented arpeggio. Maybe not enough to call it a whole tone texture, but you be the judge.


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## troyguitar (Apr 7, 2010)

SchecterWhore said:


> Also, if anyone's ever seen "The Mouse And The Motorcycle", that soundtrack is full of whole tone goodness.



OMG!

I used to love those books and movies. I haven't seen any of them in at least 10 years. What a weird place to get a reminder about them


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## telecaster90 (Apr 7, 2010)

The very first riff of this song is whole tone


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 7, 2010)

^ Sweet. Not really where I would expect it.



troyguitar said:


> OMG!
> 
> I used to love those books and movies. I haven't seen any of them in at least 10 years. What a weird place to get a reminder about them



My girlfriend and I watched the first movie not too long ago, and I said, "Hey, I know what that is!"


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## Semi-pro (Apr 7, 2010)

Don't have much to contribute here, but i remember when i first found out that scale. I found myself wanking 6 notes up and down in a loop while having all these weird flashbacks of cartoon scenes where someone feels dizzy or overwhelmed


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 8, 2010)

Semi-pro said:


> Don't have much to contribute here, but i remember when i first found out that scale. I found myself wanking 6 notes up and down in a loop while having all these weird flashbacks of cartoon scenes where someone feels dizzy or overwhelmed



That certainly is one of its uses, along with the "dream sequence" cliché.


(^ A bunch of octatonic in there, too.)


An interesting video:



Charles Griffes - The White Peacock - the beginning has a bit, and there are supposedly a lot of whole tone chords in here. The orchestration distracts me, though, so I'll post a piano arrangement, as well.



Charles Griffes - The White Peacock, piano arrangement. It's easier for me to hear the textures in this one, but I still am a bit confused. At 4:09, I think I hear the whole tone chords. "Whole tone" doesn't jump out at me.



Thelonious Monk - Misterioso - 0:42-0:45, 1:26 and on.
I know Monk used whole tone a lot, but I don't know his work well enough outside of this piece.



Henry Cow - The Decay of Cities - 2:23-2:33


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 9, 2010)

Saw these in this thread:
http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/ge...ed-ron-jarzombeks-the-cereal-mouse-video.html


Spastic Ink - The Cereal Mouse - the beginning part up to 0:09, 0:25, 1:06


Spastic Ink - Mosquito Brain Surgery - 0:40-1:12, 3:39, 4:12, 5:00,5:21, 5:47, 6:10

(^ Some chromatic mediant action going on at 2:29, too.)


I don't have the time right this instant, but I'd have a look at more of Jarzombek's stuff if anyone is looking for whole tone stuff.


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## kung_fu (Apr 9, 2010)

If I'm not mistaken, the "flute" part in Vai's "Erotic Nightmares". Also, Return to forever use it quite a bit. Same with king Crimson. I prefer hearing it in its more disguised forms (ie, not just augmented chords/arpeggios and up/down scale runs). A good scale indeed .


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 10, 2010)

kung_fu said:


> If I'm not mistaken, the "flute" part in Vai's "Erotic Nightmares". Also, Return to forever use it quite a bit. Same with king Crimson. I prefer hearing it in its more disguised forms (ie, not just augmented chords/arpeggios and up/down scale runs). A good scale indeed .



Steve Vai - Erotic Nightmares - 2:32


I'll have a look around for the Return to Forever and King Crimson examples. Do you know any specific tunes that use the sound?

In my own writing, I like exploiting the major third and tritone intervals a lot. Something like this:

D---------6
A----5-7--
E--6------

Sometimes, I like the straight scale, though.


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## kung_fu (Apr 10, 2010)

I believe the intro in "Red" by King Crimson is in whole tone. I'll have to look into RTF again, i'm sure there are examples of it on their Romantic Warrior album (I think somewhere in "Medieval Overture" i'll have to give it a listen later). They don't seem to stick with whole tone for very extended periods, they usually weave in and out of it (keeps it more interesting/less predictable imho). Also, check out Wayne Shorter's "JuJu":


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 10, 2010)

Indeed.




Right when it starts to groove on this one, there's a pretty distinct whole tone scale:


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## NaYoN (Apr 10, 2010)

Wow, this is the first time I've come across the concept of 'whole tone' (I've heard it in songs before but didn't recognize a pattern) and it blew me away! Is there a comprehensive resource for this? I'm not proficient enough in music theory to understand the two detailed posts here, but I understand some of the basics. I want to learn.


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## Demeyes (Apr 10, 2010)

This thread is awesome. I've been trying to come up with some whole tone stuff for my band lately. It's a real fun thing to play around with but I'm finding it hard to mask it and not do something too obvious with it. These songs posted are definately giving me some ideas.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 11, 2010)

Demeyes said:


> This thread is awesome. I've been trying to come up with some whole tone stuff for my band lately. It's a real fun thing to play around with but I'm finding it hard to mask it and not do something too obvious with it. These songs posted are definately giving me some ideas.



I'm glad this is helping you out. Too often, I see sites that don't really explore a scale beyond a listing of their intervals and structure, and I often want much more than that, so this thread is for people like me and you. I've really been wanting to do some more whole tone stuff, too. I've always had an affinity for the whole tone scale since I learned about it, but I don't feel I've done enough with it. If I start losing coherency, I'm sorry, this is really good champagne. 



NaYoN said:


> Wow, this is the first time I've come across the concept of 'whole tone' (I've heard it in songs before but didn't recognize a pattern) and it blew me away! Is there a comprehensive resource for this? I'm not proficient enough in music theory to understand the two detailed posts here, but I understand some of the basics. I want to learn.



I have yet to see a really great resource for nontraditional scales. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places, I don't know.

I find the best way to look at any musical tool is to think of the effect it is attempting to produce. In the Crucifixus of Bach's B Minor Mass, there's a chromatically descending bassline that's supposed to evoke sadness. The unusual resolution of the 'Tristan chord' in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde has been said to represent the separation and longing of the principal characters of the opera, Tristan and Isolde. In Alban Berg's opera, 'Wozzeck', the characters Wozzeck and Marie are given the notes B and F, respectively, as leitmotifs, the interval between the two notes being a tritone, representing the constant struggle between them. I've read an analysis of the first movement of Beethoven's first symphony, saying the movement is a rape scene. These are really programmatic analyses, and in some cases, they are spot on. Obviously, though, not all music represents something so nonmusical, but I tend to think along those lines. In the case of the whole tone scale, it's often used to displace the listener's ear and create a dreamy, fantastical environment. The scale has a really wispy, floaty, unsettled feel. In my first post, the use of whole tone scales in the Adagio tune can be thought of as representing space, or at least an aspect of it. In Ravel's "Jeux d'eau", the composer is trying to create the image of shimmering water. I remember singing this diddy in a choir I was in:

Nolan E. Schmit - A Native American Prayer - 2:48-2:55


This recording is absolute shit, but I can't find another one that measures up. You might not be able to hear it, but at 2:48, the bass is divisi, singing an ascending whole tone scale harmonized in perfect fifths. When my choir sang it, you could hear that shit clear as day - my bass section kicked ass!  Anyway, my choir director tried to explain what was happening in the song; basically, people tend to become wrapped up in the world and forget what's important and how we don't have to be angry and vengeful, etc. Be good to your fellow man, or some shit. So, this tune's building up all the while to that cadence at the time I specified, and the idea of the world's needless complexity is actually represented in the music. The structure of the harmony gets increasingly complex (I think it's in seven part harmony by that time ), and the 'narrator' takes a step back at that part and does this reflection, so the music reverts back to plainchant, signaling a return to simplicity. It's kind of cool, I'll look around for my score to show you what I'm talking about.


I guess what I'm getting at with all of this is that it helps to think of music in not-so-musical terms sometimes. Yeah, I can tell you "how to use a whole-tone scale", but that's bullshit. What it comes down to it this: the harmonies and melodic material from the whole tone scale have a really specific sound, and it's up to you to find a use for it. This post will be interesting to read when I'm sober. 

EDIT: I found my score. I took a minute to analyze it, so check out the whole tone part. The chords Gmaj7 and A are a IV V progression in D. B can be analyzed as a borrowed VI, or a secondary function (V/ii), but it doesn't resolve like a secondary dominant, so I'm calling it the former. B (or Cb, if you will) and Eb are a major third apart and are related by chromatic mediant. That's what I was talking about in post 7. In this case, the scale is built into a melodic line that passes through harmonies which do not, in themselves, suggest whole tone sonorities.







The pitches there are G A B C# Eb: all diatonic, though that Eb is diatonic in a new key.


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## NaYoN (Apr 11, 2010)

You're absolutely right with the whole 'going with the feeling' thing. Unfortunately I am bad at transcribing what I hear in my head, so I sometimes need scales. Actually, generally lately I've been having issues with being too conservative with my playing. I'm hoping to break that.

Not to derail the thread, would you say this is whole tone?


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## Leec (Apr 11, 2010)

SoundClick artist: leecassidy - page with MP3 music downloads

It's very brief, but I used it in an arpeggio (a typical one, I think you'll agree) before the slide down at the end of the first solo at 0:13.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 11, 2010)

NaYoN said:


> You're absolutely right with the whole 'going with the feeling' thing. Unfortunately I am bad at transcribing what I hear in my head, so I sometimes need scales. Actually, generally lately I've been having issues with being too conservative with my playing. I'm hoping to break that.



Just play around with the scale a bunch, and you should be able to produce some ideas. Thing about the whole tone scale is that it's purportedly difficult to compose with (eh, maybe if you haven't used it before), but there's no other sound like it. The beautiful thing is that it's symmetric and only has two possible transpositions, so you can learn it in two seconds.








> Not to derail the thread, would you say this is whole tone?



Yep. Whole tone at 1:58-2:08, and in the rhythm guitar part at 2:48.



Leec said:


> It's very brief, but I used it in an arpeggio (a typical one, I think you'll agree) before the slide down at the end of the first solo at 0:13.



You're right about brief.  What are you playing there?


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## Leec (Apr 11, 2010)

SchecterWhore said:


> You're right about brief.  What are you playing there?



A very simple 7 note sequence. I called it an arpeggio before, but of course that's not what it is. It's a run through a whole tone scale. It's just you sweep it, so I stupidly called it an arpeggio.

Anyhow, it is simply this:


```
----------16-18-20-22-20-18-16-----------------16-18-20-22-22^24
-------18------------------------18----------18---------------------
----20------------------------------20----20------------------------
-22------------------------------------22---------------------------
```

That's not strictly a whole tone scale in its entirety as it has a minor third between 22nd fret D string and 20th fret G, and 18th fret B string and 16th fret E. It's a whole tone with a couple of accidentals, if you will.


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## HANIAK (Apr 12, 2010)

Sorry about the self advertising, but this song I wrote uses the whole tone scale all the way 
HANIAK - Orthogonal Path - SoundCloud

You gotta love that whole tone scale!!


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 13, 2010)

Sweet.


I found a bunch of tunes last night.

It Bites - The Ice Melts (Into Water) - 3:56



Thelonious Monk - Round Midnight - 0:14-0:24, 0:49, 1:35



Thelonious Monk - Ruby, My Dear - 5:16-5:27



The opening music to the first season of Sabrina the Teenage Witch 



Dream Theater - Overture 1928 - 1:02



Symphony X - The Eyes Of Medusa - 3:35



King Crimson - Elektrik - The entire thing.



Sergei Rachmaninoff - First Symphony, Mvt. 1 - 7:26



Claude Debussy - La Mer, Mvt. 1 - 7:03, 7:26



Claude Debussy - L'isle joyeuse - 0:10, 0:53, 1:00, 3:10, 3:45, 4:04, 4:32, 5:24, pretty much throughout.



Claude Debussy - Prélude from "Pour le piano" - 1:15, 1:44, 3:45



Kraftwerk - Spacelab - The opening.




And I'm still on the fence with this one; I don't hear any really defining whole tone sequences. The chick in the first video makes some fun faces, though:

Edgard Varèse - Density 21.5


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Apr 16, 2010)

Fixtion - Insomnia
Fixtion's Music | Ultimate-Guitar.Com

Béla Bartók - String Quartet No. 5, mvt. 1 - 


Art Tatum - Tiger Rag - Opening section, 1:04, 


Art Tatum - Yesterdays - 1:43 is an augmented chord. Tatum uses augmented sonorities and whole-tone scales frequently, so it's worth it to mention the two in context. 


Art Tatum - Tea For Two - 2:45


Olivier Messiaen - Quartet For The End Of Time, mvt. 6, Dance Of Fury, For The Seven Trumpets


Mirrors And Copulation - I Took Care Of My Parents


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Oct 14, 2010)

I was looking at the score to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring a little while ago to find some octatonic examples (for this thread: http://www.sevenstring.org/forum/mu...techniques/133908-show-me-some-octatonic.html) and stumbled upon this little passage:






Check out the bass instruments. The last four measures of the movement, bassoons, second bass clarinet, second tuba and tenor, cellos and string bass have an ascending whole tone scale on F#. This begins at 7:35 here:


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Oct 19, 2010)

George Crumb - Music for A Summer Evening - I. Nocturnal Sounds - 2:40


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## All_¥our_Bass (Oct 20, 2010)

SchecterWhore said:


> In my own writing, I like exploiting the major third and tritone intervals a lot. Something like this:
> 
> D---------6
> A----5-7---
> E--6-------


I do that all the time. I'll skip around the whole tone scale via maj2nds, maj3rds, tritones and min6ths, then I'll add in some chromatic shifting up and down. So I'll play some bits of one whole tone scale and then switch to some parts of the other one.

For chords:
I love augmented chords with a major seven (maj7+)-not strictly in the scale but sounds cool and adds variety. (C E G# B)
Sus2+, suspended 2nd chords with a sharpened fifth degree.
I usually voice these as Root #5 maj9 though. (C D G#)
Sus2-, same as above except with a flattened fifth degree, I usually voice these as Root b5 maj9. (C D Gb)
Stacking two maj9s (C D E) or two min7ths (C Bb Ab) is pretty cool too, but both are usually more difficult to play on guitar.
Majb5 chords make an interesting substitute for plain major triads (C E Gb)


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## Kurkkuviipale (Oct 20, 2010)

17:34-17:39
I bet this song has more than only this part of the whole tone, but this is the first that got in my mind...


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## pineappleman (Oct 20, 2010)

Starting at 2:03. And especially 3:45. I'm pretty sure it occurs in other places throughout the song too.


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## All_¥our_Bass (Oct 20, 2010)

If you guys really dig whole tone you should try messing with a 9 tone augmented scale. You can build one out of three augmented chords a semitone apart (ex: Caug, C#aug+, Daug).

Or you could stack two semitones and then a whole tone, until you return to the starting note.
Starting this pattern on C, you get this: C C# D E F F# G# A Bb.

It's still very open and ambiguous, any note can be made into a tonic, but because of the mix of semitone and whole tones, it is much easier to resolve, and melodic writing is an easier task, but with some unusual and original results.
It also gives you some rather strange possibilities in terms of chords.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Oct 21, 2010)

I like the nine-tone augmented scale. I use it a lot when I'm improvising ideas. It fills out the areas that make the whole tone scale sound so symmetrical, while yet remaining symmetrical. I'm glad people are contributing, I'll listen to the last couple of songs tonight.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Oct 22, 2010)

Jeff Loomis - Jato Unit
3:10 - 3:21


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## Holy Katana (Oct 22, 2010)

I have absolutely nothing left to contribute. Every song or piece I could think of has already been posted.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Nov 20, 2010)

If there's one thing this thread has taught me, it's that this scale habit of showing up when you think you've exhausted all your options.

Gentle Giant - Proclamation - 4:19 - end, although it's prefaced with a passage that is nearly entirely composed of major seconds at 3:17, giving it a whole-tone feel, with the exception of the minor second cadence at the ends of the phrases.


Conception - Cardinal Sin - 2:18 - The bridge before the solo has the chord progression, F E Eb Db (roots), and the piano fills out the harmonies. A whole tone scale is played over the Eb.


Eric Dolphy - Mandrake - As far as I can tell, this is all pretty whole-toney, with exception to the middle of the vibes solo and the trumpet solo. And Eric Dolphy is pretty much my hero when it comes to avant garde jazz.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Nov 20, 2010)

John Greaves and Peter Blegvad - Nine Mineral Emblems - 0:20-0:50, 2:08, 3:08, 5:12, and there are a bunch of augmented chords throughout.


Adagio - Seven Lands of Sin - 4:13 - 4:18, 7:10 - 7:13, 8:39 - 8:43



Adagio - From My Sleep... To Someone Else - 3:30 - 3:37, 4:16 - 4:31 (I haven't had time to pick this apart, and there are a lot of notes, so I might be wrong on 4:16 - 4:31)


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Nov 22, 2010)

Nick Magnus - The Colony Is King - 5:02 - 5:08, 5:28 - 5:31


Maurice Ravel - Beauty and the Beast from the Mother Goose suite - 1:21, and throughout


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## right_to_rage (Nov 22, 2010)

Some of the fills are clearly wholetone, but they mix all sorts of exotic scales on a song to song basis.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Nov 22, 2010)

Matching Mole - Marchides - The first three minutes or so, both whole tone scales are being used:


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Nov 29, 2010)

Barry Harris using it - 1:18, 2:45


I just found out about this guy tonight. I'm guessing that I can find more examples of whole toney goodness from this guy if I look.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Dec 4, 2010)

Dream Theater - The Dance of Eternity - 1:25, then the riff at 4:43 alternates between modal material and whole tone.


Theodore Ziras - The Edge - 1:50-2:16


Adagio - Immigrant Song - 1:47, 1:51 - 2:07, 4:25-end.


Adagio - Order of Enlil - 1:33


Direwolf - Final Flight - 3:22-3:28, with most of that being the whole tone figure being moved up chromatically.


Direwolf - Beyond The Lands Of Human Existence - 4:12-4:17


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 4, 2011)

Gentle Giant - Prologue - The main riff is partly constructed from the whole-tone scale. 0:18-0:23 is the first statement of the scale. They play and develop the riff throughout the song.



Gentle Giant - Schooldays - 7:12, and the rest of this song is crazy as fuck.


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## Overtone (Jan 4, 2011)

Main riff


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 4, 2011)

I'm not hearing it.


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## oompa (Jan 4, 2011)

5:58



The first song that springs to mind. A lot of whole tone action going on in that song actually


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 5, 2011)

Alex Masi - Vagina Denata - 1:57-2:00, 3:21-3:28, 4:21.


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## Bakerman (Jan 5, 2011)

oompa said:


> 5:58
> 
> 
> 
> The first song that springs to mind. A lot of whole tone action going on in that song actually




5:58 is mostly F# Mixolydian with a few chromatic notes. 7:17-7:22 is really the only part that hints at WT but it's just 2 unique notes from one WT scale (first 4 notes), 4 unique notes from the other (next 8 notes), repeat.


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## Overtone (Jan 5, 2011)

SchecterWhore said:


> I'm not hearing it.



You know that first riff might actually be a diminished or chromatic idea now that I listen again. I got mixed up because of this lesson called "Whole Lotta Whole Tone" with the same riff in it but some other ideas later. I don't have a guitar or the tab right now to check...


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jan 9, 2011)

Gentle Giant - Way Of Life - 0:52-0:54, 0:55-1:19, 2:04 (very briefly), 3:53-4:18, 4:56


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## Skanky (Jan 9, 2011)

6:24 - I don't know if this run is a whole tone run or just chromatic. I'm too lazy to go get my guitar right now.


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## Bakerman (Jan 9, 2011)

Skanky said:


> 6:24 - I don't know if this run is a whole tone run or just chromatic. I'm too lazy to go get my guitar right now.



G Dorian


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## Skanky (Jan 9, 2011)

Bakerman said:


> G Dorian




Huh. It's amazing how that run sounds so dissonant in that song - probably because it's done in "rounds" on the 4th note. Neat.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Feb 20, 2011)

Robert Wyatt - Sea Song - 0:20-0:29, 1:42-2:39.


Frank Zappa - The Sheik Yerbouti Tango - 0:57-2:30, 3:14-3:35, 3:46-end.


Also, I can't find it on Youtube, but Frank Zappa's "Drowning Witch" from Ship Arriving Too Late To Save A Drowning Witch has some whole tone passages interspersed with some phrygian dominant stuff between 4:05 and 6:30, then there's a short bit from 7:07-7:09. A really interesting tune. The following track, "Envelopes", has a few parts that employ the whole tone scale.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Mar 8, 2011)

Yoko Shimomura - From Super Mario RPG, "The Swords Descends and the Stars Scatter" - 0:20-end



Van Der Graaf Generator - Squid 1/Squid 2/Octopus - From 6:48 to about the end of the piece, there is a repeating bassline that follows the whole tone scale.



Discipline - Before The Storm, Part 2 - 1:25-3:40 The guitar part has an ostinato figure, 1 #5 #4, or one could interpret 1 b6 b5. This isn't the complete scale, and the other parts do not reflect a whole-tone texture. However, to me, it sounds like a whole tone passage. The alternative analysis (1 b6 b5) is something more akin to a locrian tonality. However, I do not think this is the case.


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## Mr. Big Noodles (Jul 2, 2011)

I got StarTropics a couple of days ago, and I noticed that there's a lot of whole tone scales in the music, particularly in the conversation with the village chief, during boss battles, and right before a boss battle.

http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/StarTropics-island_chief.mid
http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/StarTropics-boss_battle.mid
http://www.vgmusic.com/music/console/nintendo/nes/StarTropics-underworld.mid

I tried finding the original MIDI files, but they're not in any place obvious, and anything on Youtube is either too short or has voiceover on it.


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## Ralyks (Jul 3, 2011)

Almost positive A.J. wrote this tune entirely in Whole Tone as an experiment


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