Enigmatic Scale

[SmoothOperator]

Are there any jazz songs based on the enigmatic scale? It seems like a very interesting scale.

[dogbite]

Are there any jazz songs based on the enigmatic scale? It seems like a very interesting scale.

wiki:

ascending 1 b2 3 #4 #5 #6 7 8

descending 8 7 #6 #5 4 3 b2 1

note the natural fourth descending. although i have heard of it, i personally have neither seen nor used this scale used in real music; however, also according to wiki:

"The scale was used by guitarist Joe Satriani in his piece "The Enigmatic"[1] from Not of This Earth (1986)."

[Rich Cochrane]

I believe this is the Verdi piece (I may be wrong, but it's certainly strange and beautiful):

I guess you have a set of fingerings but in case not (this corresponds to what Dogbite gives as the ascending version):



It would be an interesting challenge to try to write a jazz head using it; I'm not aware of anyone who's done this. The harmonization suggests some interesting non-functional progressions...

[EDIT: Haven't tried this but it looks interesting: http://www.ubiguitar.com/joomla/improvisation/valt-imaj7-11-with-enigmatic-scale.html ]

[Rich Cochrane]

It would be an interesting challenge to try to write a jazz head using it

I accepted my own challenge:

"Crecentini" Lead Sheet

This was a fun Sunday afternoon activity; I'd love to hear other people's heads using this scale.

[EDIT: In case anyone cares, bars 11 & 12 should be Gbm7... unfortunately Sibelius crashed before I saved it & I can't quite be bothered to rekey it all to fix that one thing...]

[SmoothOperator]

I didn't realize Ave Maria was an enigmatic song. It seems the enigmatic scale makes sense in songs where the there is much space between the upper voices and lower voices, given how close the harmonic series becomes. Perhaps it could be used in conjunction with modal music where the tone center doesn't change so much.

[SmoothOperator]

I accepted my own challenge:

"Crecentini" Lead Sheet

This was a fun Sunday afternoon activity; I'd love to hear other people's heads using this scale.

[EDIT: In case anyone cares, bars 11 & 12 should be Gbm7... unfortunately Sibelius crashed before I saved it & I can't quite be bothered to rekey it all to fix that one thing...]

Thanks for that. Sounds pretty cool.

[GatesofDawn67]

I assume 1+ refers to the 1 chord being augmented, but does b2mtriangle mean a minor major 7th chord on the b2 scale degree?

What on earth is d/triangle? Is it diminished with a major 7th?

-Steve

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

The triad based on the second tone is b2 #4 #6 -- In the C scale this is Db F# A#, which sounds like the 2nd inversion of a F# major triad. I don't know what to call that triad, other than late for supper.

[GatesofDawn67]

Hi Big Daddy,

I agree with your analysis for the b2 chord using the F# of the ascending scale (F natural is available in the descending scale), which is what made Rich's b2[m triangle] symbol all the more weird.

Steve

[Rich Cochrane]

Hi -- wow this thread reminds me I haven't been back here in a long time! I really ought to, I always learn a lot when I'm here.

So, here's an explanation. Be aware this is really not very applicable to practical jazz playing, though I'll say something about that at the end. Sorry in advance for the wordy answer...

What I Mean By b2[mTriangle]

The pic is from my book (link in my sig), where the convention is that seventh chords in square brackets can almost be harmonized out of it, but not quite. Exotic scales like this often don't harmonize into neat seventh chords like the common ones do.

For the sake of concreteness, say you're playing a C Enigmatic scale:

C Db E F# G# A# B

If you tried to build a seventh chord off the b2 in the usual way you'd get

Db F# A# C,

What kind of chord is this, assuming Db is the root? The spelling would be 1 4 6 7, which doesn't really look like much of anything. However, if you play the scale over that chord you'll also see it contains an E (the b3 of Db), so you could sub that in for the F# to get

Db E A# C

which is nearly, but not quite, a Db minor major seventh. That chord contains some notes that are outside the scale but isn't too far away from it. Sometimes this process is even less successful, and then I end up writing something like [d/triangle], meaning you could go with either a dominant or major seventh there.

Application

Say I've got some place in a tune where I want to play the Enigmatic scale. Rather than running it straight up and down we can try to break it up into arpeggios. To me the obvious choice here is that nice dominant chord on the #4(=b5) -- that, plus the Maj7#5 chord at the root, covers off the whole scale (the dots are just there to help the formatting):

C Enigmatic: C Db E F# G# A# B
CMaj7#5: ... C .. E .. G# .. B
F#7: ......... Db E F# .. A#

So if you mix up those two arpeggios you're playing all and only the notes from the Enigmatic scale. Another way of saying this is "if you're playing on a CMaj7#5 and do a tritone sub with the dominant chord, that's an Enigmatic sound". I do a lot of this kind of thinking in my own playing.

However, another way to go is to play the b2mMaj7 arpeggio. This will take you a bit outside the scale, but ought to give a similar "flavour". If you like the Enigmatic sound but want to play an arpeggio there, it's a suggestion to try and see how you like it.

I suspect tThis is all completely academic in this context as I've never encountered a Maj7#5 in the wild -- I'd be very interested to know of any examples. It's a beautiful-sounding arpeggio in its own right, though, so I'd be tempted to flip it around and try CMaj7#5 on top of F#7, which would be a modal application of the idea. Similarly, you could try the same arp on a DbmMaj7 and see where that got you...

Anyway, I hope this helps clarify things a bit

[SmoothOperator]

I forgot that this question sort remained unanswered.

I think the enigmatic scale reminds me of the minor line cliche some what. If the tone center is the b2, then you have a minor chord b2m, and the chromatic steps below. The pink panther tune seems a bit enigmatic.

[Rich Cochrane]

I think the enigmatic scale reminds me of the minor line cliche some what. If the tone center is the b2, then you have a minor chord b2m, and the chromatic steps below.

Yeah, that's a good observation -- in fact that mode is just all the notes from all the arpeggios in the minor line cliche, plus the fourth. Seems like that might not be the most interesting thing to learn as a scale, but could be the easiest way to get familiar with the fingerings if you wanted to explore it more.

[larry graves]

It's great analysing scales and things, but it has to be of use musically.. I use it all the time for improvising on minor tunes, such as "Caravan etc......L..

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

The ascending half reminds me of something I learned in classical theory class. They took the whole tone scale:

1 2 3 #4 #5 #6 8

... and pointed out it's ambiguous, because of all the symmetry in the scale -- where is the tonic? The next step was to add a leading tone to break the symmetry and point out the tonic:

1 2 3 #4 #5 #6 7 8

And that is close to the ascending half of the enigmatic scale, save for the b2. Now, I can't remember any real examples of this scale, but I do remember it being mentioned in class. We were using Piston, but I can't recall if this discussion came from the book.

[SmoothOperator]

I have been playing around with the enigmatic scale on My Funny Valentine solos. Since the minor line cliche is based on the 6th scale position, I use the enigmatic based on the #5, I feel it tends to resolve very strongly to 6maj chord, since the cliche is a descending pattern.

Gm Gaug Bb Gm6

Where the B in G major chord is the forth of F# scale flatted from the C. Reminds me of several tunes that have a minor key to major key shift.

[SmoothOperator]

The ascending half reminds me of something I learned in classical theory class. They took the whole tone scale:

1 2 3 #4 #5 #6 8

... and pointed out it's ambiguous, because of all the symmetry in the scale -- where is the tonic? The next step was to add a leading tone to break the symmetry and point out the tonic:

1 2 3 #4 #5 #6 7 8

And that is close to the ascending half of the enigmatic scale, save for the b2. Now, I can't remember any real examples of this scale, but I do remember it being mentioned in class. We were using Piston, but I can't recall if this discussion came from the book.

BTW, do you know any chord progressions or songs that work with the whole tone scale? I've heard the A-train is based around it, but if it is it isn't very explicit, because there are all kinds of chromaticism in that song.

[BigDaddyLoveHandles]

For the whole tone scale, check in Levine, there may be an example. But I think of it in jazz as being used more for a passing effect. I find it hard not to sound like "here I am, using the whole tone scale. Can I stop now?"

[Boston Joe]

For the whole tone scale, check in Levine, there may be an example. But I think of it in jazz as being used more for a passing effect. I find it hard not to sound like "here I am, using the whole tone scale. Can I stop now?"

Wayne Shorter's "Juju" makes pretty good use of the whole tone scale. And there are a lot of 7#5 chords in "I'll be seeing you," although it's pretty easy to overuse the whole tone scale on that. (Sometimes straight Altered or Lydian #5 sound better.)

[SmoothOperator]

For the whole tone scale, check in Levine, there may be an example. But I think of it in jazz as being used more for a passing effect. I find it hard not to sound like "here I am, using the whole tone scale. Can I stop now?"

Heh, yeah pragmatic theory can be rough. Other than the obvious augmented chord connection, the whole tone scale seems like it would work with the dominant chord tritone substitution, add a ninth, and you are a sharp five short of a whole tone scale, seems fairly common, but I can't think of song that features just those arrangements.