Kite Guitar Scales: Difference between revisions

The alteration is done so that it produces only 1 additional step size which is either 1 edostep larger than L or else 1 edostep smaller than s. If possible (and it often is), the alteration is done so that this new step size occurs only once. This is ideal because almost all steps are within the original L-to-s range, and the original (small) L/s ratio still describes the overall sound of the scale. If the new step size occurs more than once, the 3 step sizes are named L, m and s. If it only occurs once, the new step size is named either XL or xs, for extra large/small. The new step occurs more than once for near-edos 8 and 12-17, and not at all for near-edos 11 and 19.   

|2L 1s 1xs

|a dim7 tetrad

|2L 2s 1xs

|1XL 3L 2s

|1XL 4L 2s

|3L 3m 2s

|2 dim7 tetrads

|1XL 3L 5s

|2L 7s 1xs

|7L 3m 2s

Tritonic scales are augmented triads, discussed here. Tetratonic scales are dim7 tetrads, discussed here.

The 3rd step size occurs twice in these scales, making them less near-equal and less MOS-like than the other near-equal scales so far. Every scale contains a section of 2L 1m, making that section identical to an equi-heptatonic tetrachord. For example, the first scale in the table below has P5 ~6 ^m7 P8, as does the equi-minor scale. Every scale also contains a section of 2L 1s, making a down-4th, and thus an up-5th upon octave inversion. But this does not motivate fuzziness, because octotonic chords are naturally constructed from stacking "octa-thirds", i.e. using every other note of the scale. Chords avoid both perfect and off-perfect 5ths in favor of the dim 5th. The down-4th is likewise avoided.

Because of the prominence of the "octa-5th" (i.e. tritone) in octatonic chords, this interval plays a role analogous to the perfect 5th in other scales. Every octotonic scale contains eight tritones. The most consonant tritone is the dim 5th. Of course all eight tritones can't be dim 5ths without fuzziness, but half of them can be. In particular, the tonic chord can be a dim7 chord that contains two dim 5ths. The only two such chords that are playable are the ^dim7 and vdim7 chords. If we require that the remaining four notes of the scale make another such chord, there are only two near-equal octotonic scales. Each has two main modes, depending on which of the dim7 chords is considered to be the tonic chord.   

! rowspan="2" |yaza

!???

| rowspan="2" |6 5 4

| rowspan="2" |3L 3m 2s

| rowspan="2" | +3, +2, -4

!???

!???

!???

Is there an easily playable chromatic-sounding scale with nearly equal steps? Imagine such a scale expressed in edosteps. To avoid awkward string-hopping, we need three odd numbers and the rest even. The even numbers should all be the same. The odd numbers should be 1 greater or 1 less. If the even number is 8, we get the near-equipentatonic scales, because one-eighth of 41 is about 5. If the even number is 6, we get the near-equiheptatonic scales, because one-sixth of 41 is about 7. The next even number is 4, which makes a decatonic scale. Thus the saying that on the Kite Guitar, "ten is the new twelve".

However, the term for these scales is not chromatic but '''semitonal''', because the steps are roughly the size of a 12edo semitone. Chromatic refers to movement by a single fret, see the next section.

!twin downminor #1

!twin downminor #2

!twin upmajor

The twin downminor scale works well for the blues. It lacks a M2, so over the V chord, shift the scale so that it's rooted on the 5th. Likewise shift the root to the 4th over the IV chord.

!twin downminor on I

!twin downminor on IV

!twin downminor on V

Let's continue the analysis that starts the previous section. The next even number below 4 is 2. This implies many steps of a single fret, and three string-hopping steps of 3 edosteps. (1 edostep is just too small!) This makes a 19-note scale. There's not much to say about these scales. All the modes sound fairly similar, and there's not much reason to name them individually. Using the full 19 note scale is somewhat overkill, unless your song is about bumblebees.