The whole tone scale is often one of the first symmetrical scales that many guitarists explore in their studies and is a cool-sounding dominant 7th scale that you can use to add tension to your 7th chords.<\/p>\n
The whole tone scale is a symmetrical scale with only one interval between each note: the whole step.<\/p>\n
When doing so, you form a scale that contains the 3rd, #11, #5 and b7 intervals (among others), which is why you can apply this scale to any 7#5 chord in your playing, or to any dominant 7th chord<\/a> when you want to bring a #11 and #5 sound to that chord change.<\/p>\n Use the whole tone scale to play over dominant augmented chords (G whole tone scale over G7#5 for example).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In this lesson, you will learn how to build and apply the whole tone scale to your jazz guitar playing. You will learn how to play various fingerings for this scale, apply scale patterns, learn common whole tone scale licks, and a sample blues solo<\/a> that uses this scale in its construction.<\/p>\n<\/span><\/span>\n The whole tone scale is a six-note symmetrical scale, which is built by starting on the tonic note, then moving up in whole steps until you reach the next tonic note, 6 notes away.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The whole tone scale is a hexatonic scale, which means it contains 6 notes.<\/p>\n To help you visualize how the whole tone scale is constructed, here is a layout of the interval structure:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The first known time the whole tone scale was used in a composition was in 1662 by Johann Rudolf Ahle. Since then it has been used often in classical music by composers such as Bach, Mozart, Berlioz, and Schubert. Impressionist composers such as Claude Debussy were quite fond of the scale and used it often in their compositions.<\/p>\n The most famous use of the whole tone scale in popular music is in the intro of Stevie Wonder’s You Are The Sunshine Of My Life.<\/p>\n What Is The Whole Tone Scale?<\/h2>\n
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\n G Whole Tone Scale<\/th>\n G<\/td>\n A<\/td>\n B<\/td>\n C#<\/td>\n D#<\/td>\n F<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Formula<\/th>\n 1<\/td>\n 9<\/td>\n 3<\/td>\n #11<\/td>\n #5<\/td>\n b7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n The Whole Tone Scale in Songs and Jazz Standards<\/h2>\n
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