augmented scale

Video Tutorial #1: The Augmented Scale

The time has come for me to kick it up a notch on Stormhorn.com with my first video tutorial on jazz. This one is on the augmented scale, a favorite of mine.

I feel a bit presumptuous taking this step, since I’m putting myself out in front of you, my musical readers, in a new way that suggests a high degree of expertise. The reality is, I’m a mostly self-taught saxophonist who lives in a rural, bedroom community of Grand Rapids, Michigan, where you can still drive just a few blocks to find plenty of corn and cows. That said, I know what I know. More important, I’m a perpetual learner, and I like to share what I’ve learned, often as I’m still in the process of learning it. This video tutorial represents my effort to offer you more value by, er, augmenting your learning experience. (Pun intended. Rimshot, please.)

In the Jazz Theory, Technique, and Solo Transcriptions section of my Jazz page, you’ll find a good number of written articles on the augmented scale, complete with exercises, to supplement this video. One thing they can’t do, though, is familiarize you with the sound of the scale. That’s where this tutorial comes in handy. I hope you’ll enjoy it.

September 6, 2011 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Band, Christian Music, Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone, Video Tagged With: augmented scale, how to improvise jazz, jazz tutorials, music theory, Saxophone, using the augmented scale, video tutorials, videos on jazz improvisation

The Augmented Scale: A New Pattern to Whet Your Fingers On

Here is an augmented scale pattern that I started tinkering with yesterday. It’s similar to one I’ve practiced fairly often, but inserting an extra note into each four-note grouping–resulting in quintuplets–adds both harmonic and rhythmic color.

The exercise uses the Bb augmented scale. Since it is a symmetrical scale, it also functions as D and F# augmented scales. For the theory behind it, see my first post on the augmented scale and view my page on jazz theory, technique, and solo transcriptions for a number of other articles.

The image to your right (click on it to enlarge) contains three rhythmic variations of the pattern. The topmost is the pattern as I originally conceived it in five-note groupings. The line below it shows how the pattern lays out in a standard eighth-note flow. Last of all you’ll find the pattern set to triplets. These latter two exercises introduce a polymetric element, displacing accents in ways that pack added interest.

During the last few months my focus has shifted to pentatonic scales, and my augmented scale work has consequently suffered. The simple truth is, I just don’t have time to cover all the bases. (I wish I did, but no one is paying me to practice eight hours a day!) Lately, though, now that I’ve gotten the preliminary muscle-memory curve behind me with my pentatonic work, I’ve begun to return to the augmented scale. It is a fascinating, hauntingly colorful scale at which I want to become increasingly adept. The augmented and pentatonic scales both now fit into my practice regimen, along with the diminished whole tone scale. By the time I’m finished working all these weird scales into my fingers, I just hope I’ll remember how to play my major scales.

It goes without saying–it does, doesn’t it?–that you’ll practice this pattern in all four of its tonal iterations (I don’t know how else to say it; you can’t rightly call them “keys”). Remember to keep application in mind. It’s not enough to get this pattern under your fingers; how are you going to use it? Again, see my initial post on the augmented scale.

Other than that, there’s nothing left to say except, as always, practice diligently and enjoy the journey.

June 17, 2011 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: augmented scale, jazz improvisation, jazz patterns, jazz theory, musical technique, practicing jazz, sax, Saxophone, symmetrical scale

Angularity Exercises

Much of my playing is pretty boppish, and I’ve wanted to break it up with some different flavors and larger intervals. Lately I’ve been toying with some exercises on angularity involving couplets applied to the augmented scale, and I thought I’d share the wealth. Click on the thumbnail to the right to enlarge it.

The first two exercises are ones I’ve been woodshedding for about a week. They go well, as indicated, with altered dominant chords, but of course they work in any situation where you’d use an augmented scale. While the written exercises specify a B+7b9 chord, you can also use it with an Eb+7b9 and a G+7b9.

The third exercise outlines a half-whole diminished scale and will function as such. I’ve paired it with a B7b9, but it also works with a D7b9, and F7b9, and an Ab7b9.

While it probably goes without saying, play each exercise through the entire range of your instrument and through all twelve keys (“keys” being used here for lack of a better word). Since both the augmented and diminished scales are symmetrical scales, much of your work is done for you. You need learn only four versions of the first two exercises and three versions of the third one.

Happy woodshedding! And if you find these exercises helpful, check out the rest of the offerings on my jazz page.

November 18, 2010 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone, Uncategorized Tagged With: altered dominant chords, augmented scale, boppish, couplets, exercises on angularity, half-whole diminished scale, symmetrical scales

Voice Leading for the Giant Steps Cycle

Both in print and on the Internet, there’s no paucity of theoretical material available when it comes to “Giant Steps” and Coltrane changes. Of course, theoretical knowledge can’t take the place of time in the woodshed hashing out the changes on your instrument. But it can help you make some sense of what you’re practicing by revealing the order in what can at first seem like an odd, rambling array of chords. Once you understand some of the voice leading in “Giant Steps,” you’ll be able to pinpoint certain guide tones and use them effectively in your solos.

This post is by no means intended to offer an in-depth explication of “Giant Steps” theory. All I’m going to do is call your attention to how a few select tones proceed, so you can be mindful of them for the reason I’ve just stated. Let’s begin by naming the changes to the first four bars of section A in “Giant Steps.” In concert pitch, they are: Bmaj7 D7 / Gmaj7 Bb7 / Ebmaj7 / A-7 D7.

The second four bars repeats that chord progression a major third lower, thus: GMaj7 Bb7 / Ebmaj7 F#7 / Bmaj7 / F-7 Bb7.

If you delete the last two bars in each four-bar phrase and crunch together the remaining chords, you get the following sequence: Bmaj7 D7 / Gmaj7 Bb7 / Ebmaj7 F#7. This is the essential Giant Steps cycle. As you can see, once you reach the end of the cycle it repeats itself as the F#7 resolves downward by a fifth to the Bmaj7.

So far, so good. Now let’s see what happens when we start moving some basic chord tones. We’ll start with the root of the Bmaj7 chord. If you move it down by a whole step, you wind up on the note A, which functions as the fifth of the next chord, the D7. Move A down another whole step and you land on the root of Gmaj7. Continuing down by whole steps in this manner–in other words, moving down the B whole tone scale–will move you from root to fifth to root to fifth through the entire Giant Steps cycle.

You can also apply the same down-by-major-second movement starting on the fifth of the Bmaj7, which is F#. In this case, the fifth moves down a whole step to E, which functions as the ninth of the D7 chord. (You could also look at it as the fifth of an A minor chord that serves as the ii/V7 to the D7.) This note in turn moves downward to the fifth of the Gmaj7. Again you’re descending through a whole tone scale, this one beginning on the fifth of the Bmaj7.

So if you want a handy memory aid to help you organize your guide tones in the Giant Steps cycle, simply think of two whole tone scales (using half notes to match the harmonic rhythm), one descending from the root and the other from the fifth of the Bmaj7 chord.

When you spotlight the third of the major seventh chords, things get more interesting. The third of the Bmaj7 is D#. Moving down a half step lands you on the note D, which is the root of the D7. To get from there to the third of the next chord, Gmaj7, you have to jump down a minor third. When you extend this downward movement of half step/minor third throughout the entire cycle, you wind up with an augmented scale.

You also get an augmented scale when you use the same movement starting on the seventh of the Bmaj7 chord, thus: A#, A / F#, F / D, C#.

To recap:

* For voice leading from the root and fifth of the major chords in “Giant Steps,” consider using, respectively, the B and F# whole tone scales.

* For voice leading from the third and seventh, use the D# and A# descending augmented scales.

I hope these concepts will help you see the symmetry in Coltrane changes and make life easier for you as a result. If you want a resource you can take into the practice room with you to help you master “Giant Steps,” check out my book The Giant Steps Scratch Pad. It’s available in C, Bb, Eb, and bass clef editions. See below for ordering info.

Happy practicing! Oh, and be sure to visit my jazz page for plenty more tips, solo transcriptions, exercises, and articles of interest to jazz musicians.

The Giant Steps Scratch Pad

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Instant PDF download, $9.50
C edition
Bb edition
Eb edition
Bass clef edition

Print editions–retail quality with full-color cover, $12.95 plus shipping: order here.

September 19, 2010 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Band, Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: augmented scale, chord tones, Coltrane changes, Giant Steps cycle, Giant Steps Scratch Pad, guide tones, jazz musicians, solos, voice leading, whole tone scale

An Easy Way to Use the Augmented Scale in Major Keys

As I’ve continued to spend time incorporating the augmented scale into my working vocabulary as a jazz saxophonist, I’ve made one recent discovery which simplifies its application, at least in part. It is this: the same augmented scale used with the tonic chord in a major key also works beautifully for the altered dominant.

For example, in the key of C, use the C augmented scale for both the tonic C Maj 7 and the G+7(b9, #9). Just keep in mind how you handle the root of the scale when the G dominant is sounding, same as you would do if you were playing a G Mixolydian mode.

The reason this same-scale approach works is because every augmented scale, being symmetrical by design, is actually three different scales spaced a major third apart, all sharing the same notes and interval relationships. The C augmented scale also functions as an E and an Ab augmented scale, and each version works nicely with an altered dominant seventh chord built on its leading tone. Thus the Ab augmented scale is the scale of choice for imposing the augmented sound on the altered G7 chord.

Try the above tip with a blues as well. It works fine, adding color and enough “wrong notes” to sound right, providing you bring the free-floating augmented sound back to earth by resolving it properly to a chord tone and maybe adding a nice, earthy dash of the blues scale.

If you have other ways in which you like to use the augmented scale, please drop a comment and share them. And check out my jazz page for more articles and transcriptions geared for the practicing jazz musician.

February 19, 2010 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Band, Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: altered dominant seventh chord, augmented scale, easy way to use the augmented scale, free-floating augmented sound, jazz saxophonist

Man, It Feels Good to Play My Horn Again!

There’s nothing like picking up my saxophone again after being away from it due to illness. This past week-and-a-half I was laid up with a nasty chest cold. It was so bad that for three days, I literally couldn’t speak, something that has never occurred before. I’m a sucker for bronchitis, but I’ve never had laryngitis that I can recall, up until last week.

Praise God, though, it’s now behind me, and this evening I put in a solid two hours practicing my sax. Oh, man, did it feel good! It’s amazing how quickly my technical dexterity can lose its edge, but a few more sessions with my horn ought to have me back in top flight. Tonight I spent time running patterns on the diminished scale, the diminished whole tone scale, and the augmented scale, and worked on re-memorizing Charles McPherson’s alto sax solo on “Lynn’s Grins.” It all felt a bit clunky, but that’s okay. And it’s amazing what memorizing a transcribed solo can do for freeing up both one’s chops and one’s ideas.

Speaking of solo transcriptions, keep your eyes open. I plan to post another one soon, featuring Cannonball Adderley blazing his way through Rhythm changes.

That’s all for now. Back soon with some musical goodies.

January 3, 2010 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: augmented scale, Cannonball Adderley blazing his way through Rhythm changes, diminished whole tone scale, it feels good to play my horn again, memorizing a transcribed solo, patterns on the diminished scale, picking up my saxophone, practicing my horn, solo transcriptions

Chromatic Couplets: Another Way of Unlocking Diminished and Augmented Scales

Have you had enough of the augmented scale yet? Hungry to get back to something nice and basic–a good, old-fashioned diminished scale, for instance?

chromatic_couplets_for_altered_dominants

How about the best of both worlds. The two exercises shown here (click image to enlarge) take you through two sets of chromatic couplets, each beginning with the note A. However, the first exercise is built on a diminished scale while the second is based on an augmented scale.

While both scales are symmetrical scales, which implies ambiguity of tonal centers, let’s for the sake of convenience call the topmost scale a Bb whole-half diminished scale, and the bottom scale a Bb augmented scale. A quick glance will tell you that both exercises start on the leading tone of the scale, which also corresponds to an altered dominant chord that the scale works well with.

I love the ethereal, rather mystical sound of chromatic couplets used in this fashion. The first half of each exercise emphasizes chordal structure; the second half, without adding any extra pitches, creates a more linear feel.

Remember, because each scale is symmetrical, it functions equally well with more than just one chord of the same quality. The first pattern, built on the diminished scale, will not only work with an A7b9, but also with C7b9, Eb7b9, and F#7b9. The second pattern is a good choice for A+7#9, C#+7#9, and F+7#9.

And with that, it’s time for me to wrap up this post and go practice what I’m preaching. For more exercises and articles of interest to jazz and improvising musicians, visit my jazz page.

November 30, 2009 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: altered dominant chord, ambiguity of tonal centers, augmented scale, Chromatic couplets, diminished scale, each scale is symmetrical, unlocking diminished and augmented scales

A Favorite Augmented Scale Lick (or, Echoes of Oliver Nelson)

I’ve been having fun lately getting the augmented scale underneath my fingers in all, ahem, twelve keys. Okay, right, there are really only four versions of this symmetrical scale that a person needs to learn, after which the note sequences repeat themselves. One of the nice things about symmetrical scales is the reduced workload.

But it’s still work, and a person has to start somewhere. For me, the work in fact began several years ago, when I first dabbled with the augmented scale long enough to become dangerous. I didn’t stick with it to the point of really mastering the scale and its application, but I did acquire a favorite augmented scale lick that I’ve used ever since. I worked it out for myself, then subsequently discovered that Oliver Nelson had employed a variation of the descending pattern long before in his solo on “Stolen Moments.”

Sigh. Christopher Columbus I’m not, and there’s nothing new under the sun. Except, of course, the way that each of us nuances and applies musical material which personalizes it and makes it uniquely ours.

Anyway, since I’ve lately been turning my attention once again to the augmented scale, both in my practice sessions and in my blogs, I thought I’d share my favorite augmented scale pattern with you. Click on the image to enlarge it. One of its most obvious applications is for outside playing. The sequence of the pattern, with anchor tones spaced by major thirds, outlines both augmented and major triads, and overall emphasizes the augmented sound.

For more information and exercises on the augmented scale, check out my posts on The Augmented Scale and Using the Augmented Scale with “Giant Steps.” You’ll also find these articles listed on my Jazz page, along with numerous other insights and exercises for improvising musicians.

November 19, 2009 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: anchor tones, augmented and major triads, augmented scale, augmented scale lick, improvising musicians, Oliver Nelson, Sequence, Stolen Moments, symmetrical scale, Using the Augmented Scale with Giant Steps

A Lydian Flat Seven Workout

In a recent post on the lydian flat seven scale, I explored the theory behind the scale, and I promised that I’d have more to say in the future.

I’m as good as my word, and am back with something you can wrap your fingers around in the woodshed. Click on the image to enlarge a little exercise I put together that explores a few of the ins and outs of the lydian flat seven scale. It’s nothing fancy, just something you can work with that will help open up your ears to the scale’s colors and possibilities.

The scale is a G lydian flat seven scale. For best results, play it with some kind of harmonic accompaniment sounding a G7+ll behind it. An Aebersold CD or Band-in-a-Box is ideal. Transpose according to the requirements of your instrument.

By the way, the lydian flat seven scale also works beautifully when you’re soloing on two major-minor seventh chords that are a major second apart. The A section of the tune “Killer Joe” is a classic example, with it’s repeated, I7-bVII7 pattern.

But getting back to the exercise, please note a couple points of interest. In the eighth bar, I take a momentary excursion to the augmented scale, just to slip outside and add a bit of color. And in bars 11 and 12, I inject some chromaticism by using a favorite lick of mine based on the C#+7(#9). The chord is the tritone-substitute for G7+11, and since the same scale works for both of them, the lick transfers nicely.

By now, the more observant of you will have noticed that the exercise is seventeen bars in length. There’s a reason for that, a deep, cryptic logic that is too difficult to explain here other than to say that I wasn’t thinking and seventeen bars is what I wound up with. Deal with it. And have fun!

November 12, 2009 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Saxophone Tagged With: A section of the tune Killer Joe, augmented scale, I7-bVII7 pattern, lydian flat seven scale, tritone substitute

“Giant Steps” Licks and Patterns

After posting a couple days ago on how to use the augmented scale with “Giant Steps” changes, I’ve experienced a renewed interest in woodshedding John Coltrane’s high-hurdle chord cycle.

There was a time in my musical life, maybe ten years ago, when I became moderately obsessed with “Giant Steps.” I painstakingly wrote down my practice material in a music notebook, which I continued to add to until I had a veritable blizzard of ideas to work with.

Today, looking through the web, I see plenty of resources that explore the theory behind the changes to “Giant Steps.” However, I don’t see much in the way of licks and patterns, of application-oriented stuff that a sax player can actually wrap his or her fingers around. So, since I’m presently re-exploring my “Giant Steps” notebook, I thought I’d share a page with you.

Click on the image to the right to enlarge it. It’s all hands-on stuff. If you want to study Coltrane’s theory involving key centers moving by major thirds, you can find plenty of information on the Internet, such as this excellent Wikipedia article. But understanding the “Giant Steps” cycle isn’t the same as playing it, and that’s where this article can help.

One caveat: since I’m an alto sax player, I wrote out the changes in my key. If you play an instrument pitched in Bb or C, such as tenor sax or flute, you’ll need to transpose.

The patterns shown here are for the first four bars of the tune’s A section. With it’s lopsided arrangement of V7-I cadences–which would be simple enough in themselves to negotiate if Coltrane hadn’t placed the bar lines so inconveniently–this section is the one that can be hard to master. I wrote out material for the B section as well, but what I’ve shown here will probably be more to your immediate interest.

Enjoy the material, practice hard, and have fun!

UPDATE: My entire “Giant Steps” practice notebook is now available for sale in C, Bb, Eb, and bass clef editions. Using music notation software, I transcribed all of the handwritten material (including the above image) into a clear, easy-to-read format; wrote a front section that discusses the basic theory of Coltrane changes and gives tips and insights for practice; and had a cover professionally designed.

The Giant Steps Scratch Pad is available as

* PDF download–$9.50

* Print edition–$10.95 plus shipping

The PDF will provide you with the full contents of the book instantly and save you money. The print edition gives you the complete, finished production complete with glossy cover. If you enjoyed the licks and patterns on this page, then The Giant Steps Scratch Pad is for you. View page samples from the Bb edition and order your copy today!

October 19, 2009 by Robert Hartig

Filed Under: Jazz, Jazz Improvisation and Technique, Music, Saxophone Tagged With: alto sax, augmented scale, Coltrane's theory, Giant Steps cycle, Giant Steps licks, licks and patterns, musical notebook, practice material, sax player