Seite 3. The Jazz-Manouche Scales-Book

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3 This book is dedicated to my wife Gina, who always backed me up in all those years in beeing a musician, as well as to all of my Gypsy-friends who helped me along the long way in learning to play Gypsyjazz-Guitar. It is supposed to be a helpful hand for all the Gypsyjazz-players out there who are eager to learn new scales for their improvisations skills. The book doesn t claim for any completeness or accuracy of the contained informations. Bertino Rodman, Jan Seite 3

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5 Table of Contents Page Title (7) Introduction Major-Scales (10) - Natural major scale (11) - Natural pentatonic-major-scale (12) - Bebop -major-scale Minor Scales (14) - natural minor-scale (16) - pentatonic-minor-scale (17) - Blues -scale Altered variations of natural-scales (19) - harmonic minor-scale - melodic minor-scale (20) - melodic minor-scale (ascending) - melodic minor-scale (decending) (21) - melodic minor- Bebop -scale (22) - mixolydian-scale (23) - mixolydian-altered-(bebop)-scale (24) - half-disminished-scale - disminished-scale (26) - chromatic scales Exotic and other variations of scales (27) - the Gypsy -major-scale (28) - the Gypsy -minor-scale (29) - hungarian major-scale - hungarian-/persian-gypsy-scale (30) - spanish Gypsy -scales (31) - romanian minor-scales (32) - oriental scale - ultra-locrian-scale (33) - wholetone-scales (34) Epilogue Seite 5

6 Seite 6 Scales - what scales? If we talk about any kind of musical content, we also have to talk about scales as well. In music theory, scales are defined as any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is called descending scale. Some scales may contain different pitches when ascending than when descending. Scales are something like the musical base content or essence of any kind of music-style wether if we talk about todays Pop-, Rock-, Jazz-, Dance-music, Classical-music or whatever kind of music-style... That said it is pretty clear that as a musician and especially as a (Gypsyjazz-)guitarplayer it is very important to build up an intense knowledge about scales to be able to understand and use it s contents in any kind of musical situation. Unlike the pianoplayer sees all the notes (keys) in front of him while playing, the guitar-player faces a real problem when starting to play: there is no real orientation on the fretboard - unless the player is starting to learn to play scales on it, just then the positions and names of notes are revealed and connected... So the importance of learning scales becomes a true nessesity for every guitar-player, at first to find orientation, later on inspiration or content for improvisation. In every culture worldwide many different scales are existent, of course created on and from the many different instruments beeing utilized. By the huge variety of exisiting instruments, it is clear to see that in fact hundrets, if not thousands of scales do exist worldwide. But which one to use when? The first real scale that has beeing utilized in the western hemiphere is todays A-minor-scale, in ancient times also called the Aeolian -scale. Many of the older instruments used this scale (often in tunings such as meantone or well temperament ), also on old key-instruments like church-organs. That s why this scale has also been called the church -scale, back then. Let s get deeper into scales now. Each tuning of instruments involves specific frequency ratios of intervals such as major- or minor seconds and thirds, perfect fourths and sixth and/or sharpened and disminished fifths or seventh. The specific frequency ratios of all intervals differ from one way of tuning to another. Subtle differences in these ratios determine how the music really sounds. In well temperament tuning for example, it is possible to play in all existent keys without re-tuning, but each key has its own character and frequency range, which can be utilized by the composer for creating an additional dimension to the music. Moreover, one key (usually the key of C major) sounds very pure, with almost no beats. As the music moves into adjacent keys, the true purity of intervals successively disminishes. By the creation of the Piano (around 1700 a.c.) the general structure of music has been re-organized from scratch to fit the sorting of the keys on the Piano-keyboard, resulting in the so called equal temperament tuning. In equal temperament tuning in comparison to well temperament, the lack of purity has been spread equally among all keys. Like in well temperament tuning in equal temperament, it is also possible to play in all keys without re-tuning, but any interval in one key has the same frequency ratio as the same interval in any other key.

7 Seite 7 As you might already know todays staff-notation origins from the sorting of the piano-keys. All 7 white keys played from left to right starting from C to B create today s standard major-scale in C: C D E F G B (and repeating after 8 keys with another Coctave again). All these notes played on the white keys on the keyboard from left to right create two natural semi-note steps by the lack of the black keys between the note E - F and B C (Octave), these are called the natural semitone-steps (see image right). So the notes E - F and B - C are the so called natural semi-steps inside a scale, but in comparison to that all other semitone-steps in any other scale have to be created artificially by using the # or b -sign for sharpening or lowering a note a semitone-step (See the example bottom left). In the western (music-)world we generally distinguish scales in two main-sections: major- and minor-scales The basic feelings created from these scales are joyful, enthusiastic or happy from the major-scales and something like sad, depressed or even numb by using minor-scales (of course those feelings are very individual...). Though basically this is the main focus of scales in the western musical world, of course there is much more ahead for muscial content then only those two scales. But by first gaining deeper knowledge on these two basic musical concepts it is easy to understand how all the other known and used scales, such as the altered- or artificial -scales (and others more), can be derivated and created from. Although many (Jazz-)guitarrists sometimes seem a bit confused by the sheer amount of scales and the possibilities to use them, these two main scales major- or minor-scales (and their derivates), are the real essences to focus on at first. Just like the great jazz-guitar-legend Joe Pass once explained in one of his workshops of the Blue side of Jazz -series: <Quote>... i don t like to think or play complicated. Just keep it simple and easy. When i play to me basically it s just a major- or minor-scale at first, wether if it may contain sevenths, ninths, sixth or whatever intervals... and on he goes:... any changes of any tune can be filled with that knowledge, as you may easily add these intervals to any basic major- or minor-scale after to create the nessesaryly contained steps... </End Quote> So that may as well become a little easing for every player that seems beeing confused by the amount and use of scales in general.

8 Seite 8 Of course this bock cannot claim for any completeness on scales in general, just impossible by the sheer amount of scales that are existend and available for use. Because of that right here in this book i d like to focus especially on the scales that are interesting for using them in Jazz-Manouche or Gypsy -Jazz for playing them on the guitar. As already introduced earlier we will also start here at first with the very basic scales, such as major- or minor-scales, as they already contain all the essence of other altered scales. Then we will switch over to scales that can be derived from these basic scales such as the harmonic- and melodic minor-scales, leading over to any kind of further special -scales such as the altered-, (half-) disminished-, mixolydian-, super or ultra locrian scales. We will then finally end up with all kinds of more exotical-scales that nevertheless may also make sense of beeing used in (Gypsy-)Jazz, such as the general Gypsy-minor- or the spanish Gypsy-scale, the hungarian major and - minor-scale, the romanian minor-scale as well as the pure oriental-scale or the wholetone-scale. All examples of these scales are (most of the time) presented in the key of C. But of course they may as well easily be transferred to any other keys by just moving them to other frets on the guitar. That way transposing them to any desired base-key in the circle-of-fifth. Last but not least it is to mention that of course the knowledge of scales alone may not lead you to the desired results while improvising at first. Of course you will have to gain knowledge about how to use the scales in certain musical situations. But by intensively practising them at first, you will gain that understanding and knowledge how to integrate them into your playing sooner or later. My advice for you is to try out the scales on certain songs that you know well. Try improvising over a chord-change that you know very well, maybe something like a or a blues-progression. Utilizing the scales or parts of them in this kind of enviroment or even just on single chords. Practising in the woodshed first may lead you to new shores of inspiration with these scales or parts of it later on. A very important note to end up this introduction now: make sure to always(!) practise the scales you want to use with the click of a metronome to get them under your fingers in time first, to be able to use them in any musical context later on. Not doing so may lead you to strong frustration in the situation in question. Allright now, let s start by taking a further look at the scales. I wish you great success with all the examples and hope that this book will be useful for your further way in becoming a better (Gypsy-Jazz)guitarrist. Keep up the swing, yours Bertino

9 Seite 9 The natural major-scale The natural major-scale in C (before also called the ionian -scale) as exlained earlier, has been created as a basic re-structuring of the equal temperature tuning and for re-sorting the key of the piano. Looking at any piano-keyboard you will find two spaces where black keys are absent, where two white keys are sitting besides each other. These two spaces are the notes E and F, as well as B and C. By the natural structure of the piano-keys, these two are the so called natural semitone-steps in the key of C-major, in comparison to the other semitone-steps that have to be artificially created in all other keys (except A-minor). Here is a first fingerset for the C-major-scale on the guitar (pos. 3rd fret). The contained intervals of this scale are: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Of course there are (always) different kinds of fingersets for playing any scale, this applies to this scale as well. But the fingersets presented here have a great benefit for you as a guitarplayer, as you may play those fluently all over the neck with just one fingerset not only in C, but also in all other keys! Even when transferring it to the 8th-position on the E-string for example you will be able to play exactly the same fingerset without any change. Here is the second example including the second octave in the key of C (pos. 3rd fret): Interesting enough is the fact that the second part of this fingerset of the C-major-scale starting at the first octave of C exactly contains the same part of fingerset (in six notes) as the upper part of the A-minor-scale in it s second octave. We will take a look at the A-minor scale later on.

10 Seite 10 Pentatonic major-scales The so called Pentatonic -scales origin from very old five-tone-scales played in asia espescially in China, already hundrets of years ago. Pentatonic -scales are scales reduced to five notes (Penta = greek, five). They simply don t use the natural semi-steps contained in every other major- or minor-scale used in the western world. Pentatonic -scales (wether major- or minor) have a few deep benefits as they are (relatively) easy to play and secondly they fit into many different musical context as with the absence of otherwise sometimes disturbing semi-note steps. Thats why pentatonic scales already very early have found their way into Blues (and Rock-music later on) in the first years of the last century. In the key of C-major they only contain the five notes: C, D, E, G, A or intervals R, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8. Here is an example of a simple C-major pentatonic-scale over two octaves: Pentatonic scales, as mentioned above, are used in all different kinds of music-styles, so they also became a well liked and often used tool in Blues and Jazz-music as well. Also in Gypsyjazz pentatonics can be very useful in short passages as binding elements between one scale and another. But i also have already seen some Gypsyjazz-players using them completely all over their improvisations - the real musical deepness of their playing may as well be doubted. Of course the absence of semi-note-steps is a double-sided sword, because on the one hand pentatonics are more easy to play and by containing no semi-note steps work as well without any disturbing notes sometimes, thus a great tool to have. One the other side they lack the musical substance of relaying to the played major- or minor chords. Either way, pentatonic-scales (wether major- or minor) are a must have for every guitarplayer.

11 Seite 11 Bebop -major-scales The so called Bebop is a Jazz-style developed in the early to mid 1940ies which has been created by a younger generation of Jazz-musicians changing the popular Swing-Jazz to a more sophisticated playing. While the ways of musical improvisation in the early years of Swing between 1920 to 1940 basically used a very strong relation to the played chords, the Bebop-musicians changed their ways of improvisation to a more free kind of playing and interpretations. Rather than playing heavily arranged music, Bebop musicians typically just played the melody of a song (called the head ) with the accompaniment of the rhythm section, followed by a section in which all of the performers improvised solos, then returned to the melody at the end of the song. This kind of interpretation of music has also been used and mixed together with their own way of playing by Gypsyjazz-musicians like Django Reinhardt or the brothers Ferret and others to become what is known as Jazz-Manouche or Gypsyjazz today. Bebop-musicians used and explored more advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, chord substitutions, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies and much more. That said it is pretty obvious that the scales used in Bebop also had to fit the needs of the musicians to create complex lines and fit into the more complex chord-changes. Using natural major- or minor-scales with only 7 notes didn t do the job for them anymore with those complex chord-changes. That s why the Bebop-musicians started to add another 8th note within used natural major- or minorscales, to be able to play long lines of improvisation without the repeating the same 7 notes all the time... which by the way didn t fit into the fast tempos they used to play at. The round number of 8 notes dramatically changed this by giving more freedom in timing. The intervals used in the Bebop-major-scale are: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 6, 7, 8: The so called Bebop -major-scale basically is a natural major-scale with an additionally added flattened sixth (or sharped fifth) note. It may be used in all kinds of musical jazz-context, at the parts where majorchord-changes occur (such as for example the chords C6/9 - (Dm7) - G7) in a change). But also as a binding link between chords in tunes with many changes any Bebop-kind-of-scales are very useful. Of course the player has to decide in which musical context he would like to set a special kind of Bebop -sound in his playing.

12 Seite 12 Here s a nother example of the Bebop-major-scale over two octaves staying in one register: Bebop-scales in general sound more modern and sophisticated and are a great tool in your scales-box, while improvising. Here s a great tip for learning scales and other stuff like licks: try to get these (as well as other scales) under your fingers and to remember them well by immediately transposing every new scale that you learn into other keys. On the guitar it s easyly done: just move the fingerset to another fret, check which base note you play and - voila, here is your new scale in another key! Additionally you may also practise any scale by the one-step-foreward, two-steps-back -technique. Some players might know that from classical etudes. Very helpful!

13 Seite 13 The natural minor-scale The same that already has been explained for the natural major-scale before applies also to the natural minor-scale (of A-minor) as it completely origins from the natural way of sorting of the (white) piano-keys. The natural semi-steps that are to be found in the keys E - F and B - C (by the absence of the black keys) and appear in the natural minor scale all the same. Thus it is creating the A-minor scale starting from the sixth note (step) of the natural major-scale in C by playing left to right. Like already mentioned earlier, the so called Aolian -scale (also called church -scale before), which actually correlates with todays natural minor-scale, was one of the first scales to be used in music in the western music world. Many of the very old tunes in the 16th century and later originated from that scale. When the piano was developed around the end of the 16th century, the need of re-structuring the soundrange on that instrument was resolved by introducing the equal temperature tuning to the piano-keys. This fact also generally had a huge impact on the later musical development, because the sorting position of the notes on the piano-keyboard dramatically changed the way music has beeing composed in the future. Like the natural major-scale origins from the natural position of the notes on the piano-keys, the same applies to the natural minor-scale that derive from the 6th position of the major-scales. That also explains what in musical theory is called the paralell minor-scales. As every major-scale contains the notes of a minor-scale when starting from the sixth position of that particular major-scale. These paralell minor-scales have six out of seven notes at the exact same position of their corresponding major-scales, thats why they are called paralell minor-scales. In our example of the natural A-minor-scale e.g. these are the notes C, D, E, F, G, A as they remain at the exact same position than within the natural C-major-scale. No artificial altering of any of these notes needs to be done. The contained intervals are: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8: The natural major-scale in the key of C and the natural minor-scale in the key of A-minor are the ONLY two existent scales with no altered but natural steps. To create any other kind of scale within the circle of fifths at least one (or more) notes need to be artificially altered to create that scale by adding a # to raise or the b to lower that certain note. That applies to major- or minor-scales the same. This fact leads us to the C-minor-scale with their flattened structure.

14 Seite 14 Like already explained before for the natural major- and minor-scales, the C-major and the A-minorscale are the only two scales in the circle of fifth which dont need to be altered in any way. All other scales are in need of that. That said the C-minor-scale shows that extensively as already three notes need to be flattened to create that scale: the third, the sixth and the seventh. To create the C-minor-scale you need to add three b for flattening the mentioned notes. This is how it looks on the guitar (pos. 3rd fret): Minor-scales in general are one of the most interesting scales for any guitar-player, wether what style he/ she is playing. The fact mentioned before, that every major-scale also has a corresponding minor-scale (the so called paralell minor-scale) clearyfies this importance. When you take a closer look at the C-major- and A-minor-scale, you will find out that the upper register of six notes of the A-minor-scale (marked in blue here) remain at exactly the same position like in C-major: A, B, C, D, E, F, G Here are the benefits as you can play this minor-scale over any C-major-Chord (same applies for other key/scales). As the minor-scales have more easy fingersets they may be even more interesting to use.

15 Seite 15 Pentatonic minor-scales Like already explained for pentatonic major-scales, the pentatonic minor-scales are standard minor-scales but reduced to a maximum of five notes. By eliminating the two semi-steps contained within the natural minor-scale (in the case of natural A-minor this would be the notes B and F ), the pentatonic -minorscale is created. So this scale contains only five notes (penta = greek, five) instead of the usual 7 notes of a scale, the intervals are: R, b3, 4, 5, b7, 8. Pentatonic scales are easier to play by the absence of semi-steps, which usually are harder to play on the guitar. Likewise with the pentatonic major-scales, the minor-variation of these scales have many useful possibilities and applications. Therefore this scale has very early found it s entrance into the musical language of the western music hemisphere. In Gypsyjazz minor-pentatonics usually are used for fast runs between chords or as missing link between other scales. As in Gypsyjazz many chordchanges are often substituted into 6st-chords (even if originating from 7thchords), the use of any pentatonic-scales, wether for major- or minor, is somehow becoming limited unlike in other music-styles like Blues. Nevertheless pentatonics are a must know for every guitar-player.

16 Seite 16 Blues -Scales The so called Blues -scales are derived from Pentatonic minor-scales. Actually the Blues -scale never really existed as an official scale, as the structure is exactly the same than the pentatonic-scale, just with an additional flatted fifth, the so called blue note as first extension. The intervals contained are: R, b3, 4, (b5), 5, b7, 8: Some variations of the Blues-scale are furthermore completed with more additionally added thirds (or flattened eleventh) to give it even a deeper bluesy feel then the first variant. The interesting part of this second variation is that the added third (or b11) builds the missing link between major- or minor chords. The intervals are: R, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, b7, 8 Because of their missing semi-steps pentationic- or Blues-scales are generally useable on all kinds of major- or minor chords the same without any disturbance. The variation with the added third (b11) gives the player the opportunity to additionally add or leave out this link whenever need. The scale sometimes is also useful in Gypsyjazz when improvising over any bluesy kind of chord-progessions.

17 Seite 17 Here are some more variations of the basic Blues -scale. Example 1 shows the C-minor-scale with added blue -notes, while example shows 2 the A-minor variation with all positions over the whole fretboard. Tip 1 (for generally practising all kinds of scales): always try practising scales at slow(!) tempos at first (about 65 to 80 BPMs on the metronome) fluently over the whole fretboard. Once you acchieved this by playing the scale up- and down without any error, raise the tempo about 5 to 10 beats. Again practise fluently without breaks until all tempos are fully acchieved without any errors (lookout for Tip 2).

18 Seite 18 Altered major- and minor -variations of Scales As we already went through the basic major- and minor-scales in the chapters before we will now take a closer look at the variations of these scales that can be derived from these basic scales. By just raising ( # ) or flattening ( b ) one note of a natural scale it is possible to create a completely new scale and doing this creates the so called altered, disminished or augmented scales. The Harmonic minor scale One of the first altered scales we want to look at is the so called harmonic minor -scale. The notes of the harmonic -minor scale are exactly the same as the natural minor except that the seventh degree is raised by one semitone, making an augmented second between the sixth and seventh degrees. The seventh degree, in a similar way to major scales, becomes a leading tone to the tonic because it is now only a semitone lower than the tonic, in contrast to the seventh degree in natural minor scales, which are a whole tone lower than the tonic (subtonic). This scale is also called the Aeolian#7. The intervals are: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 7, 8 The Melodic minor scale In comparison to the harmonic minor-scale mentioned before, the melodic minor -scale has other altered notes which create two variations directions when playing ascending or descending. These two options are the ascending melodic minor -scale (also known as Jazz minor -scale or Ionian b 3) and the descending melodic minor -scale (Aeolian equivalant) respectively. Note that the ascending melodic minor scale is the 5th mode of the Lydian dominant -scale. The ascending melodic minor scale will be notated as: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 while the descending is written as: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8. In its upper tetrachord, the ascending melodic minor scale is identical to its major scale. The descending melodic minor scale becomes identical to the natural minor scale.

19 Seite 19 Here at first the variation of the (ascending) melodic minor-scale in the key of C. The intervals used in this scale are: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 The decending of the melodic minor-scale is the second variation. While the ascending form of melodic minor has flattened third and natural seventh, the decending form creates a flattened sixth and seventh. The intervals are: R, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8: A great deal of modern jazz harmony arises from the modes of the ascending form of the melodic minor scale, also known as the jazz melodic minor -scale. This scale is essentially a diatonic major scale with a flatted third, for example C D Eb F G A B. As with any other scale, the modes are derived from playing the scale from different root notes, causing a series of jazz scales to emerge.

20 Seite 20 While modes are a great issue in Jazz harmonic theory, the vast contents doesnt allow us to look very close at this right here. To give you a first glimbse of the possibilities that modes may create for improvising, here is a chart with the basic modes derived from the melodic minor scale: (Source: Wikipedia) The Melodic minor- Bebop -scale Here is another example of one of the possible variations of the melodic minor-scale, which is the melodic minor-bebop -scale. In this scale another flattened sixth is added to create that special Bebopfeel. The contained intervals: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 6, 7, 8

21 Seite 21 The Mixolydian -Scale Next in our examples of altered scales, i will introduce the so called Mixolydian -scale (example in A). This scale also contains a flattened sixth, but this time this scale is derived from the sixth mode of the melodic minor scale, thus creating a special kind of minor scale, associated here with an A7b13-chord. Contained intervals: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8 In our second example it is associated with the C7b13-chord. This Mixolydian-scale is also called the Super locrian -scale, which originates from the 7th mode. The contained intervals are R, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, 8

22 Seite 22 The Mixolydian (altered) -Bebop-scale Another great-to-use or must-have -scale is the altered Mixolydian -Bebop-scale, a scale which is beeing derived from the mixolydian-scale mentioned before. Almost identical it containes an additional natural sixth, instead of only the flattened sixth, thus creating that Bebop -feel by the kind of chromatic-steps. These intervals are used: R, 2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 6, 7, 8 When talking about altered scales we also need to talk about the so called disminished and half-disminished-scales, which as well have a long tradition beeing used in Gypsyjazz. Lets start at first with the half-disminished scale on the next page.

23 Seite 23 The half-disminished Scale This scale containes four (out of seven) flattened notes, thus the name half -disminished. The half-disminished scale is very useful when played over dominant-seventh- or ninth-chords. The intervals are: R, b2, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7, 8 The disminished scale In comparison to the half-disminished-scale mentioned before the disminished-scale bares only flattened third, fifth and sixth. The intervals are: R, 2, b3, 4, b5, b6, 6, 7, 8

24 Seite 24 Here s another variation of the disminished scale in C: To complete our section of altered scales we will now finally take a look at so called chromatic scales at the next page. Chromatism means playing only semi-steps, which sometimes can be useful for filling up major- or minor- or any other scales to create fluent lines and stay in time while improvising. With this connection or completion it is well possible to create Bebop -kind of lines or scales as well as connect serveral different scales with each other to keep a fluent playing over long bars within a solo. Let s take a look at chromatics now on the next oage.

25 Seite 25 Chromatic -Scales The so called Chromatic -scales have basically been created from the so called Bebop -scales mentioned above. Chromatic -scales contain only semi-steps, thus the full range of twelve instead of only seven notes of the natural scales explained before. It s contained intervals are: R, b2, 2, b3, 3, 4, b5, 5, b6, 6, b7, 7, 8: As the Bebop-musicians tried to expand their musical possiblities while improvising, even the added 8thnote (flattened sixth) of the Bebop-scales sometimes didn t give them enough headroom to smoothely run thru the heavyly complex changes they liked to play in their tunes. Therefore they once more expanded their playing by again adding even more notes to the natural scales they ve used to play before. By adding all 12 notes of the circle of fifths they were able to freely connect all chord-changes in a tune, wether how complex they d may have been. Originally developed by Horn, Saxophone and Clarinet-players, Gypsyjazz-Masestro Django Reinhardt was one of the first guitarrists to integrate these kind of scales into his playing on the guitar. Here is a typical example of how Django Reinhardt became famous for playing chromatic runs (always played in accented in triplets) at rather lightening speed: Chromatic -scales are beeing used in Gypsyjazz as well, mostly in situations where many chords occur in short time or if the changes of a tune are too fast to run thru a whole set of a natural or altered-scale.

26 Seite 26 Exotic and other variations of scales As already mentioned at the beginning in the introduction of scales, many scales origin from the kind of instruments that they are played on and the more each culture has it s own musical background and instruments. That clearely explains why there are so many different scales, hundrets if not thousands of different scales in all kind of parts of the world. Of course not all scales are very useful for every kind of music style, and as we want to focus straight on Jazz-Manouche or Gypsyjazz in this book, we will only talk about scales that will make sense knowing them to play them over such kind of tunes as a guitar-player. The Gypsies e.g. Sintis or Roma ( Rom = Romanes for man, human ), as many of you may already know origin from the land of Sindh, located in northern part of India close to the border of Pakistan and Nepal. The Sintis used to be musicians in ancient times already, playing at the royal palaces of the indian Maharadjas, until they had to leave their country for certain reasons, beeing banished by some ungracious emperor (see also Gypsyjazz Guitar - a tribute to Gypsyjazz, page 9). On their long trail they were travelling all the way thru the eastern areas of todays Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and even spreading all over up to Egypt. Another great part of them kept travelling to the southern regions of Greece, Italy, Kroatia, Serbia, Hungary, Austria and even until the eastern parts of Ukraine, Russia. Many of them went further north-west to settle all over Germany, France, Spain and northern territorys abroad. From all their travels they always took over and played the music that was sufficient to make them some living and create some income... so the influences in their melodies and scales was sheer endless already back then. In the european parts of Germany, France, Italy and Spain they ve learned and integrated far east and Balkan music, hungarian çsardas as well as the french musette waltzes, italian lovesongs and the fiery spanish flamenco into their music. In our section of exotic -scales we will start by introducing the Gypsy -Major and minor-scales, as well as after comparing them to the spanish Gypsy -scale. The Gypsy -Major-scale This unusual scale origins from a blend mix of some arabic as well as the western harmonic minor-scale mentioned earlier. Very well usable over any dominant-major-sixth or paralell minor-sixth chord. It contains a flattened fifth and seventh as following intervals: R, 2, 3, b5, 5, b7, 7, 8

27 Seite 27 The Gypsy -minor-scale Very similar to the Gypsy major-scale showed before, the gypsy -minor-scale containes a flattened third and sixth (as typical minor) but also the flattened fifth instead of a natural fourth. The used intervals are: R, 2, b3, b5, 5, b6, 7, 8 Here is another compact variation of the scale at the eigth fret of the deep E-string:

28 Seite 28 The Hungarian -major-scale The so called hungarian major -scale is very similar to the Gypsy major -scale mentioned before. Almost identical except the fact that the hungarian major also contains a flattened instead of a natural third which is used within the gypsy -major-scale. The intervals used: R, b3, 3, b5, 5, 6, b7, 8 The Hungarian-/-Persian-/Gypsy -scale Here is a pretty strange sounding scale which is called hungarian-/-persian-gypsy -scale of course of it s influence of persian and hungarian scales the way Gypsies used to play them. The scale, basically is a major-scale, which creates it s special ambiance by the contents of a flattened second and sixth (a bit similar to the half-disminished scale) but again keeping all other natural steps of a natural major scale. The used intervals are: R, b2, 3, 4, 5, b6, 7, 8

29 Seite 29 The Spanish Gypsy -scale As already mentioned before the Sintis used to travel all over Europe, originating from the far north-eastern areas of India. When they arrived in spain their music mated and took on the spanish playing style of flamenco. The spanish flamenco music has strongly been influenced of the spanish time of northern-arabic moorish invasion and occupation in 14th and 15th century. Their scales use flattened second and sixth intervals almost identical to the Hungarian-persian Gypsy -scale mentioned above, except an additional flattened seventh interval. So the Spanish Gypsy -scale is some kind of derivate, very similar to the Hungarian-persian Gypsy scale mentioned before. The intervals used: R, b2, 3, 4, 5, b6, b7, 8 Here is another variation of this scale which is very useful for Gypsyjazz as well:

30 Seite 30 The Romanian -minor-scale One of the first areas where the Sintis arrived on their travel all over Europe, have been the southern territories of the Balkan-area crossing the black sea, thus Romania and later on Hungaria. Originating from the romanian music, this scale also is some kind of derivate, very similar to the Gypsy minor-scale mentioned before. The intervals used: R, 2, b3, b5, 5, 6, b7, 8 The second variation at the eight fret of the deep E-string of this also very useful scale:

31 Seite 31 The Oriental -scale This scale is originating from arabic-influences used by Gypsies and is called oriental -scale. The sound is similar to the Super locrian -scale originating from the seventh mode of the melodic minor -scale mentioned above, with the addition of a flattened seventh here. The intervals used: R, b2, 3, 4, b5, b6, b7, 8 The ultra-locrian -scale Last but not least i like to present you another variation of the Locrian-mode, the so called ultra-locrian scale. While the super locrian -scale before uses another flattened fourth and seventh, the ultralocrian -scale utilizes an additional natural sixth (bb7) instead of a seventh step. The intervals used here are: R, b2, b3, 3, b5, b6, b7, 8

32 Seite 32 The Wholetone -scale To finish up with our JazzManouche-Scales-book of useful scales for Gypsyjazz, the last scale i like to show you here is the so called Whole-tone -scale. The name already shows it s origin, as it only contains full steps instead of the normally used eight full- and semi-steps in other scales. Often used by Guitar-Maestro Django Reinhardt this scale is quite heavy to play on the guitar as the fingers need to be spread really wide. This scale is very useful on dominant-7b5-chords, starting from its root. The intervals used: R, 2, 3, b5, b6, b7, 8 Here s another variation of the scale, some say that it was played like this by Django Reinhardt as it seems more easy when played with only with two fingers:

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34 Seite 34 Epilogue Now that we have somewhow put a little light into the mystery of scales you maybe might have found a better insight and maybe won another idea of how to spice up your playing when improvising over any (Gypsy-/Jazz)-tunes. Of course i am fully aware that the field of improvisation and scales is so huge that this little book only may give you a first glimbse of the possibilities there are in real. But as already mentioned before there are countless scales all over the world and it would never be possible (and the more be useful) to put them all into one book. But that was t my intention anyway. In my carreer as musician i was always eager to learn new things and, like grandmaster Django Reinhardt, i v always tried to stay courious, always beeing interested in new sounds, new inspirations. Just when sometimes i was listening to GJ-players from all over the world in Germany, Spain, Italy or even in Samois-sur-Seine / France (e.g. in the heart of the GJ-community ) while these were playing and improvising, i found that many of those (often young) players all the time use the same kind of scales and licks, mainly the ones that they learned before and are well used to... like we all do. But you might often just hear any major- and minor-scales, some may know some additional arpeggios, some pentatonics - that s it... yet there is so much more! So this also leaves a kind of dry taste behind as the variety and richness of possibilities when improvising becomes much too limited by that, and that s how it sounds very often when listening to these players: dry and limited. Inspired by that my intension to create this kind of scales-book was to create something like a little initial spark for these kind of players mentioned above, something that might get them into a little more extended playing, inspried by the possibilities there are when learning some (new) scales as explained in this book. But the book may of course as well be interesting and useful for more advanced players that already know their (Gypsy-)Jazz-repertoire and still keep searching for new shores of inspiration in new scales they maybe didn t know yet. I hope that i was able to explain everything clearly and correctly, talk about all interesting stuff there is to know about the scales presented here and how they are beeing created or how they might be used. But of course there can t be any claim of completeness at all or absolute accuracy in the harmonical context these scales are used in, as we talk about Jazz... As all the great well known (Sinti-)Jazzplayers always create their own style and way of playing their stuff, some of these (scales) may be used or sound even like theoretical harmonic errors or they may sound like a false use of scales the way they get played by gypsies sometimes - still exactly this kind of false freedom maybe creates some of the fascination and that special sound of Jazz-Manouche and Gypsyjazz as well. Maybe one should generally use things not too much theoretically while playing, especially much more to keep trusting your own ears than trying to play theoretically correct when improvising in music generally and (Gypsy-)Jazz especially.

35 Seite 35 This way inspiried you might start playing some of the scales mentioned here even in context or over chords that you may think they might not be 100% correctly used in harmonic theory in first place but they just may sound right to you to create that special Gypsysound while you re playing... so just keep trusting your own ears, wether what style you are playing in. Just according to what another great Jazzmen, Miles Davis once said:... dont fear any mistakes - there are none! As long as you re playing the right note at the right time again you re fine... This way just have fun with this book and start experimenting with all that has been presented here. Keep up the swing! Bertino

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