Altered Pentatonics, Scales and Patterns

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What is an altered pentatonic? It is any scale with five notes per octave that is not a major or minor pentatonic. Three of the more common altered pentatonic scales includes the b6 pentatonic, the b3 pentatonic and the b2 pentatonic. Each scale is essentially a major pentatonic with the exception of one 'altered' or changed note.

Play a major pentatonic while lowering the appropriate scale degree to achieve the altered altered pentatonic.

Here's some examples:

Major Pentatonic: C, D, E, G, A

b6 Pentatonic: C, D, E, G, Ab

b3 Pentatonic: C, D, Eb, G, A

b2 Pentatonic: C, Db, E, G, A

Due to the fact that pentatonics are not made up entirely of whole or half steps, patterns must be discussed in terms of skips and steps. A step occurs when the next note is an adjacent note while skips occur when the next note is an adjacent note while skips occur when we skip over a note in the scale to play the next available note.

Scalar Pattern with b6 Pentatonic:

C, D, E... D, E, G... E, G, Ab...G, A, C... Ab, C, D... C, D, E... E, D, C... D, C, A... C, Ab, G... Ab, G, E...G, E, D... E, D, C.

Intervallic Pattern with b2 Pentatonic:

C, E, Db, G... E, A, G, C... A, Db, C, E... Db, G, E, A... C, G, A, E... G, Db, E, C...Db, A, C, G... A, E, G, Db.

Try to create a few of your own patterns. They will help create new ideas, assist you with the memorization of the new scales and will acclimate your ear to the new sounds you are making.


Chord Scale Relationships


Altered pentatonics can be very useful over a variety of different chord types.



b6 Pentatonic 1 2 3 5 b6

Major 7 #5 = 3 #11 #5 7 R

Minor (Maj7) = 5 6 7 9 b3

Minor 6/9 = 5 6 7 9 b3

Dominant = 9 3 #11 6 b7

Half Diminished = b7 R 9 11 b5

Running Changes

Once you've mastered the concept of playing altered pentatonics over a single chord or harmonic situation, it's time to move on to running some changes. Use b6 pentatonics in the context of a minor II-V-I progression. The trick to remember this sequence is that you will be building the b6 Pentatonic off of the roo b3 and 5 of the tonic minor triad.

Over Dm7b5 you will see a C b6 Pentatonic, over G7alt you will find an Eb b6 Pentatonic and over the Cm6 there is a G b 6 Pentatonic.

You might find that limiting yourself to one scale or sound can be liberating. Every note might not fit over every chord, but forcing yourself to find out what does work is often a very enlightening experience. Improvising means thinking outside of the box and expanding your creative abilities. Use your own ears as a guide for what works and what doesn't and you'll never be lead astray.
(An article by Chaim Burstein)

You may be interested in, Musician's Transformation and Music Training Center (affiliate link).





"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King

Passing Tones: Lee Evans

 I have learned music theory from one of my favorites, Lee Evans. He wrote an article in one of my Jazz Magazines about melodic embellishment and ornamentation in jazz. The content is divided into four categories. I wanted to share it with all of my many readers who have asked me about passing tones.

1. Weak beat ornaments


2. Strong or weak beat ornaments


3. Other ornamental devices


4. Combinations of devices from the above 3 categories

So, let's talk about weak beat ornaments. In the examples, I'm talking about single notes and the note highlighted in red is what I'm talking about.

Passing Tone - a chromatic tone between two adjacent scale tones. In traditional usage, half or whole step scale notes which, in a melody, pass between the tones of a triad or chord are sometimes referred to as passing tones. Only half-step tones occurring between adjacent scale notes will be called passing tones in this article.

Example: C to C# to D, then D, Db, C.

Anticipation Tone - an anticipation tone between two adjacent scale tones.

Example: C to D, D or E, D to D

Echappee - a tone occurring between two adjacent scale tones, the motion to the ornamenting tone being contrary to the motion between the scale tones.

Example: C, B to D then C, D, B

Cambiata - a tone occurring between two adjacent scale tones, the motion to the ornamenting tone being the same as the motion between the scale tones.

Example: C, A, B then C, E, D


Neighbor Tone (upper or lower) - a half or whole-step tone occurring between two of the same tones.

Example: C, C#, C and C, D, C. C, Bb, C then C, B, C

For the strong or weak beat ornament:

Jazz Appoggiatura - a leaping tone (an interval larger than a 3rd) which then moves a major or minor 2nd in the opposite direction. (Note that a jazz appoggiatura is a melodic embellishment that does not take into consideration the harmonic or rhythmic implications of the traditional appoggiatura.

Example: C, Gb, F then C, F#, G to C, G, F and C, F, G

Regarding ornamental devices:

Grace Note - an ornamental tone whose time value is not counted in the rhythm.

Example: B to C and D to C

Repeated Tone

Example: F to E (original motive) then F, F to E (repeated tone embellishment)

Tremelo - the rapid alternation of two tones.

Example: C to E, (tremelo) play C, E, C tremelo embellishment (in fragmentation)

Scale Tones - tones found in any scale other than the chromatic scale. (Chromatic  scale tones would be heard as passing tones.)

Example: C to G (original motive) then C, E, F, G (scale tone embellishment)


Chord Tones - tones outlining any chord, including altered chords.

Example: C to C (original motive) then, C, E, G, A, C c(chord tone embellishment)

Free Tone - an ornamental tone having no relationship to any chord being sounded.

Example: G (G7/D), to F# then C

I think that's tons of information for now. There's so many combination examples to write out that I'll skip the final part but you get the idea. Here are some more related former posts:

Passing-chords

Neighboring-tones

Passing-tones

Three-steps-to-passing-chords

Until next time, be sure and stop by and take a look at this music resource, Song Robot







"The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you." B.B.King