jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, the altered scale, altered dominant scale, Palamidian Scale, or Super Locrian scale is a seven-note scale that is a dominant scale where all non-essential tones have been altered. This means that it comprises the three irreducibly essential tones that define a

dominant seventh chord In music theory, a dominant seventh chord, or major minor seventh chord, is a seventh chord, usually built on the fifth degree of the major scale, and composed of a root, major third, perfect fifth, and minor seventh. Thus it is a major triad tog ...

, which are root, major third, and minor seventh and that all other chord tones have been altered. These are: * the fifth is altered to a 5 and a 5 * the ninth is altered to a 9 and a 9 *the eleventh is altered to a 11 (equivalent to a 5) *the thirteenth is altered to a 13 (equivalent to a 5) The altered forms of some of the non-essential tones coincide (augmented eleventh with diminished fifth and augmented fifth with minor thirteenth) meaning those scale degrees are enharmonically identical and have multiple potential spellings. The natural forms of the non-essential tones are not present in the scale. This means it lacks a major ninth, a perfect eleventh, a perfect fifth, and a major thirteenth. This is written below in musical notation with the essential chord tones coloured black and the non-essential altered chord tones coloured red. : The altered scale is made by the sequence: :Half, Whole, Half, Whole, Whole, Whole, Whole The abbreviation "alt" (for "altered") used in chord symbols enhances readability by reducing the number of characters otherwise needed to define the chord and avoids the confusion of multiple equivalent complex names. For example, "C^7alt" supplants "C⁷⁵⁹⁹¹¹", "C^{7−5+5−9+9}", "Caug^7−9+9+11", etc. This scale has existed for a long time as the 7th mode of the

ascending melodic minor scale In music theory, the minor scale is three scale patterns – the natural minor scale (or Aeolian mode), the harmonic minor scale, and the melodic minor scale (ascending or descending) – rather than just two as with the major scale, which also ...

Enharmonic spellings and alternate names

The C altered scale is also

enharmonic In modern musical notation and tuning, an enharmonic equivalent is a note, interval, or key signature that is equivalent to some other note, interval, or key signature but "spelled", or named differently. The enharmonic spelling of a written n ...

ally equivalent to the C

Locrian mode The Locrian mode is the seventh mode of the major scale. It is either a musical mode or simply a diatonic scale. On the piano, it is the scale that starts with B and only uses the white keys from there. Its ascending form consists of the key note, ...

with F changed to F. For this reason, the altered scale is sometimes called the super-Locrian scale or the Locrian flat four scale. It is also enharmonically the seventh

mode Mode ( la, modus meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * '' MO''D''E (magazine)'', a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is ...

of the

. The altered scale is also known as the Pomeroy scale after

Herb Pomeroy Irving Herbert Pomeroy III (April 15, 1930 – August 11, 2007) was an American jazz trumpeter, teacher, and the founder of the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble. Early life Pomeroy was born in Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States. He began playing ...

, the Ravel scale after

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composers rejected the term. In ...

, and the diminished whole tone scale due to its resemblance to the lower part of the

diminished scale An octatonic scale is any eight- note musical scale. However, the term most often refers to the symmetric scale composed of alternating whole and half steps, as shown at right. In classical theory (in contrast to jazz theory), this symmetric ...

and the upper part of the

whole tone scale In music, a whole-tone scale is a scale in which each note is separated from its neighbors by the interval of a whole tone. In twelve-tone equal temperament, there are only two complementary whole-tone scales, both six-note or ''hexatonic'' sc ...

. The super-Locrian scale (enharmonically identical to the altered scale) is obtained by flattening the fourth note of the diatonic Locrian mode: : Another way to obtain the altered scale is by raising the tonic of a major scale by a half step. For example taking the tonic of the B-major scale, and raising the tonic by a half step produces the scale C–C–D–E–F–G–A–C. : The altered scale can also be the

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double i ...

with all of the notes except the tonic being flattened.

References

Sources * * * *

External links

"The Altered Scale for Jazz Guitar"
jazzguitar.be {{DEFAULTSORT:Altered Scale Heptatonic scales Musical terminology Jazz terminology Hemitonic scales Tritonic scales

Enharmonic spellings and alternate names

See also

References

Further reading

External links