Universal Scale Forms From Indian Classical …rpschne/Universal Scale Forms From...So you can build...

UNIVERSALSCALEFORMSFORGUITARFROMINDIANCLASSICALMUSICRobertSchneider

DedicatedtoTannerOlinSmith

Listeningtomusicfromthe1960sand‘70s,itseemslikeguitarandkeyboardplayershadaccesstosomeveryexoticmusicalscales,sortofattheintersectionofscalesfromfolkmusic,jazz,Indianmusic,bluesandotherforms—andinformedbylysergicvisionquests,nodoubt.LikecheckoutsolosfromtheByrdsorStrawberryAlarmClockorPiperattheGatesofDawn,orforinstancetheelectricsitarandorgansoloson“DoItAgain”bySteelyDan.ThosearecrazyscalesandIhavenoideawhatthesoloistsaredoing;itfeelsreallymysteriouslikelostancientknowledge.Lookinginasimilardirection,Iofferhereamethodtobuildnewmusicalscalesonguitar,basedonideasfromHindustani(i.e.NorthIndian)classicalmusictheory.TheWestern tradition of classical/folk/popularmusicmainly uses themajor andminorscales,alongwithafewlesscommonscaleslikeharmonicminor.Bycontrast,Hindustaniclassicalmusic uses 10 equally prominent scales, which include theWesternmajor andminorscales(butnotharmonicminor).These7-toneIndianscales(samenumberoftonesperoctaveasWesternscales)arecalledThaat(soundslike“tot”),andareconstructedbyaspecialruleabouthowyouflattenorsharpentones.Youbeginwithamajorscaleinanykey,andaltercertaintonestoformnewscales.Oftheseventonesinthemajorscaleoctave,therootnoteandfifthareneveraltered,theyarefixedtones.Thesecond,third,sixthandseventhtonesintheoctavecanbe“flatted”(ornot)butneverraised.Thefourthtoneinthescalecanbe“sharped”(ornot)butneverlowered.The10classicalThaatarisefromthisconstruction.Aneasycalculationgivesatotalof2b = 32differentscalesthatcanbebuiltbythismethod.These include all the classical Indian andWestern cases (including the harmonicminorscale), plus twenty or so other, new scales. The left-hand diagram below represents theguitarfretboardatanypointontheneck,andcanbeusedtomapoutthesescalesbyfillingin certain dots. The black and boldface-white circles represent the root and fifth tones,respectively,whicharepartofeveryscale.Fortherestofthedotsinsidetheovalblobs,oneofeachpairisselectedforthescale.Thesecond,colordiagramgivesakeytothewayoctavesrepeat:ovalblobsofthesamecolor(notetherearetwodifferentshadesofblue)representdifferentoctavesorfingeringsofthesamenote,soblobsofthesamecolorshouldhavethesamechoices(firstorsecond)ofdotsincludedinthescale...oryoucanjustmarkdotsoffhoweveryoulikeandnotworryaboutdifferentoctaveshavingthesamesequenceofnotes.

Soyoucanbuildlotsofinterestingscalesusingthisuniversaltemplate,andexperimentwiththemon guitar—of course, the scale constructionprinciples apply to any instrument.Asexamples of what these diagrams look like, here are the ten traditional Thaat and anadditionaloneconstructedbythesamerules,plusafewblankdiagramsfornewscales:

NoticethatBilavalThaatistheWesternmajorscale,KafiThaatistheminorscaleandNewThaat#1istheharmonicminor.Ishouldemphasize,I’mnotanexpertonHindustanimusictheory—I just love the beautiful music of India, and used combinatorics to work outadditionalscalesfromthelittletheoryIdoknow.IlearnedabouttheclassicalThaatinafewmusiclessonswithRajPandya,arenownedIndianmusicianandteacherbasedinKentucky.Mr.Pandyagreatlyexpandedmyunderstandingofmusic:inthefirstlesson,hespokeoftheuniverseasanenergyfieldripplingwithlifeandcreativity,andrelatedthistosoundwaves.Ifyouareinterestedtolearnmore,therearemanygoodresourcesonHindustanimusicoutthere;forinstance,checkoutTheRagaGuideCDandbookset(NimbusRecords,1999).