# An exploration of lesser used scales: Phrygian Dominant, Bartok, & Whole Tone



## Jongpil Yun (Dec 12, 2007)

Bass strings on top in the diagrams.

Forgive my ugly handwriting. Also ignore my odd habit of using flats for intervals and sharps for note names. I'm not sure where I picked it up, but it annoyed the hell out of my violin teacher. I chose sharps for the whole tone scale because "A, B, C#" seems more natural than "A, B, Db".

I only included six strings because that way, four roots fit rather nicely.

You'll notice I chose a rather odd fingering for the Bartok scale. IMO, it's one of the easiest and most natural fingerings of any scale there is. Only two patterns per octave when you go 3nps + 4nps, incredibly easy to remember and play. In a tritone based tuning it would be ridiculously easy.


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## zimbloth (Dec 12, 2007)

That first scale (Phrygian Dominant) is one we write a huge number of our songs in. I'd say we have around 7-8 songs in that scale (varying keys of course), I absolutely love it, it has very epic and catchy harmonies if used properly, very brutal and sinister at the same time. Hungarian Minor is pretty close to that one as well. We also use Aeolian Minor a bit.

The bartok one, looks somewhat familiar, may have one song in that. Definitely would never use whole tone.


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## Jongpil Yun (Dec 12, 2007)

Whole tone doesn't strike me as something you'd do an entire song in metal or something. Like I said, the tonic is very weak, and it gets repetitive, since you only have a single interval. But you can do really cool things with it, especially in softer acoustic moments, that sort of gives a very airy, ethereal sound that really emphasizes whatever you do next.

One of the things that strikes me as useful about it is simply the fact that augmented tonalities are very rarely used in the guitar, though diminished ones are very common.


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## stubhead (Dec 12, 2007)

Being an old Satanic baby-roasting hippie from way back, I'm also real fond of the Double Harmonic Minor scale:

1 b2 3 4 5 b6 7 8 - major 3rd _and_ major 7th. 

The fourth mode of that is the aforementioned Hungarian Minor:

1 2 b3 #4 5 b6 7 8

The Double Harmonic Minor can be used much like the Locrian mode, to warp out of a "normal" structure - i.e., write a normal song in F, with the ordinary C and Bb chords - "La la la I love you baby", then _ease_ on down to an E, hit the low open string, fire up your ovens....

There's a couple of synthetic variants I'm fond of:

1 2 b3 #4 5 b6 b7 7 8

1 b2 b3 3 #4 5 b6 7 8

The second one has the advantage of containing a pentatonic minor scale - _one half-step up_ - so you can write a dumb boogie in F, then _ease_ on down to the E, hit the low open string, chop your garlic....


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## distressed_romeo (Dec 12, 2007)

Good stuff. Screwing around with melodies from synthetic scales = endless fun.


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## JBroll (Dec 12, 2007)

Jongpil Yun said:


> Whole tone doesn't strike me as something you'd do an entire song in metal or something. Like I said, the tonic is very weak, and it gets repetitive, since you only have a single interval. But you can do really cool things with it, especially in softer acoustic moments, that sort of gives a very airy, ethereal sound that really emphasizes whatever you do next.
> 
> One of the things that strikes me as useful about it is simply the fact that augmented tonalities are very rarely used in the guitar, though diminished ones are very common.



One of the songs on Heartwork is very strongly whole-tone, can't recall which though. 

Jeff


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## Apophis (Dec 12, 2007)

Good stuff 
I really like scales like that. I'm trying to avoid most popular scales


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## stuh84 (Dec 12, 2007)

Yeah I've been a big fan of Phrygian Dominant for years, I've got a bit of a reputation for coming up with songs in it, my bands first song came from me mostly, and its ALL based around Phrygian Dominant.

I love soloing in it, it sounds so much fun.

I'm gonna be regoing over the rest of the scales though, its been a while since I looked at bartok and whole tone


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## stubhead (Dec 12, 2007)

If you want to get into systems for generating new melodies, Ron Jarzombek has explained the method he used to come up with the melodic content of the songs on "The Machinations of Dementia" from his Blotted Science project (this is a _fantastic_ album, as essential as Petrucci's "Suspended Animation" or Barry Manilow's "Greatest Hits Vol. 3").
The Circle Of 12 Tones

Jarzombek posts video samples of each lick on the page, it's almost unbelievable without it (you'll buy the album after you watch this clip):
http://www.ronjarzombek.com/rjrem.wmv

he explains it a little more here:
The Circle Of 12 Tones

Jazz guitarist Pat Martino has a whole system based around diminished and augmented chords, rather than diatonic do-re-mi. 
Click on "The Nature of Guitar", scope out pages 1 and 3 for example.
Pat Martino

I can't figure out _what_ the hell he's talking about, but he seems to have a good time with it.


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## Jongpil Yun (Dec 12, 2007)

This song's cool. Whole tone based.


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## Desecrated (Dec 12, 2007)

thanks


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## Jongpil Yun (Dec 14, 2007)

Oh shit. I was just playing Guitar Hero 2, and I noticed that the fast picked solo in Jordan is done using the whole tone scale.


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## stubhead (Dec 14, 2007)

One neat thing about a really "disturbed" scale like whole tone is that it can often be resolved _sideways_ - just because it's so annoying and unresolved in itself, you can ease on out to something else. For example, just play a simple ascending whole tone lick, then try ending it on a simple major chord - _one half-step up_. Your ear hears it as, 
_"Thank God that weird shit's over!"_  

This gives you an obvious "doorway" to get from any major chord to any other unrelated major chord - you can resolve the whole tone tension to either the 1st, 3rd or 5th of a major chord up a half-step, so it's really versatile. With a little rhythmic context it can actually sound like you know what you're doing.


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## guitarplayerone (Dec 17, 2007)

phrygian dominant kicks ass. idk if it's a 'lesser-used scale' there are bands that seem to build not just songs, but albums around it (nile)


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