Hexatonic scale

In music and music theory, a hexatonic scale is a scale with six pitches or notes per octave. Famous
examples include the whole-tone scale, C D E F♯ G♯ A♯ C; the augmented scale, C D♯ E G A♭ B C; the
Prometheus scale, C D E F♯ A B♭ C; and the blues scale, C E♭ F G♭ G B♭ C. A hexatonic scale can also
be formed by stacking perfect fifths. This results in a diatonic scale with one note removed (for example, A
C D E F G).

Whole-tone scale
The whole-tone scale is a series of whole tones. It has two non-enharmonically equivalent positions: C D E
F♯ G♯ A♯ C and D♭ E♭ F G A B D♭. It is primarily associated with the French impressionist composer
Claude Debussy, who used it in such pieces of his as Voiles and Le vent dans la plaine, both from his first
book of piano Préludes.

This whole-tone scale has appeared occasionally and sporadically in jazz at least since Bix Beiderbecke's
impressionistic piano piece In a Mist. Bop pianist Thelonious Monk often interpolated whole-tone scale
flourishes into his improvisations and compositions.

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Mode-based hexatonic scale

The major hexatonic scale is made from a major scale and removing the seventh note, e.g., C D E F G A
C.[1] It can also be made from superimposing mutually exclusive triads, e.g., C E G and D F A.[2]

Similarly, the minor hexatonic scale is made from a minor scale by removing the sixth note, e.g., C D E♭ F
G B♭ C.[1]

Irish and Scottish and many other folk traditions use six-note scales. They can be easily described by the
addition of two triads a tone apart, e.g., Am and G in "Shady Grove", or omitting the fourth or sixth from
the seven-note diatonic scale.
 Mode I II III IV V VI

Major Minor Raga Mixolydian Phrygian

Name Ritsu Onkai
hexatonic hexatonic Kumud hexatonic hexatonic

1 ♭2 ♭3 4 ♭6
Notes 123456 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭7 123567 1 2 4 5 6 ♭7 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7
♭7

Based on Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian Mixolydian Aeolian

modes
Mixolydian Aeolian Locrian Ionian Dorian Phrygian

Omitted
7 6 5 4 3 2
note

Augmented scale
The augmented scale, also known in jazz theory as the symmetrical augmented scale,[3] is so called because
it can be thought of as an interlocking combination of two augmented triads an augmented second or minor
third apart: C E G♯ and E♭ G B. It may also be called the "minor-third half-step scale", owing to the series
of intervals produced.[3]

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It made one of its most celebrated early appearances in Franz Liszt's Faust Symphony (Eine Faust
Symphonie). Another famous use of the augmented scale (in jazz) is in Oliver Nelson's solo on "Stolen
Moments".[4] It is also prevalent in 20th century compositions by Alberto Ginastera,[5] Almeida Prado,[6]
Béla Bartók,[7] Milton Babbitt, and Arnold Schoenberg, by saxophonists John Coltrane and Oliver Nelson
in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and bandleader Michael Brecker.[3] Alternating E major and C minor
triads form the augmented scale in the opening bars of the Finale in Shostakovich's Second Piano Trio.

Prometheus scale
The Prometheus scale is so called because of its prominent use in Alexander Scriabin's symphonic poem
Prometheus: The Poem of Fire. Scriabin himself called this set of pitches, voiced as the simultaneity (in
ascending order) C F♯ B♭ E A D the "mystic chord". Others have referred to it as the "Promethean chord".
It may be thought of as C Lydian dominant without the 5th degree.
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Blues scale
The blues scale is so named for its use of blue notes. Since blue notes are alternate inflections, strictly
speaking there can be no one blues scale,[8] but the scale most commonly called "the blues scale" comprises
the minor pentatonic scale and an additional flat 5th scale degree: C E♭ F G♭ G B♭ C.[9][10][11]

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Tritone scale
The tritone scale, C D♭ E G♭ G(♮) B♭,[12] is enharmonically equivalent to the Petrushka chord; it means a
C major chord ( C E G(♮) ) + G♭ major chord's 2nd inversion ( D♭ G♭ B♭ ).[13]

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The two-semitone tritone scale, C D♭ D F♯ G A♭, is a symmetric scale consisting of a repeated pattern of
two semitones followed by a major third now used for improvisation and may substitute for any mode of
the jazz minor scale.[14] The scale originated in Nicolas Slonimsky's book Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic
Patterns through the "equal division of one octave into two parts," creating a tritone, and the "interpolation
of two notes," adding two consequent semitones after the two resulting notes.[15] The scale is the fifth mode
of Messiaen's list.

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See also
Hexachord
 Istrian scale

References
1. McCabe, Larry (January 21, 2011). You Can Teach Yourself Song Writing (https://books.goo
gle.com/books?id=T-DO3HSM-KEC&q=shady+grove+hexatonic+scale&pg=PA57). Mel Bay
Publications. ISBN 9781610654883. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
2. Brown, Jimmy (June 5, 2012). "Guitar 101: Learning Harmony Through Six-Note Hexatonic
Scales, Part 4" (http://www.guitarworld.com/guitar-101-learning-harmony-through-six-note-he
xatonic-scales-part-4). Guitar World. Retrieved March 13, 2016.
3. Workman, Josh. Advanced: "Secrets of the symmetrical augmented scale (http://www.guitarp
layer.com/article/secrets-of-the-symmetrical-augmented-scale/6542)", Guitar Player 41.7
(July 2007): p108(2).
4. Advanced: "Secrets of the symmetrical augmented scale". Josh Workman. Guitar Player
41.7 (July 2007): p108(2).
5. Johnson, Timothy. "Modernism" (https://archive.today/20121211114429/http://www.ithaca.ed
u/music/mtsnys/2010mtg/abstracts/modernism.html). Ithaca College. Archived from the
original (http://www.ithaca.edu/music/mtsnys/2010mtg/abstracts/modernism.html) on
December 11, 2012. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
6. Corvisier, Fernando (January 2000). "The ten piano sonatas of Almeida Prado: the
development of his compositional style" (https://usp-br.academia.edu/FernandoCorvisier/Pa
pers/1157648/The_ten_piano_sonatas_of_Almeida_Prado_the_development_of_his_comp
ositional_style). University of São Paulo/Academia.edu. Retrieved May 16, 2012.
7. Bartok, Bela (1955). The Miraculous Mandarin. New York: Boosey & Hawkes.
8. J. Bradford Robinson/Barry Kernfeld. "Blue Note", The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz,
Second Edition, London (2002)
9. Ferguson, Jim (2000). All Blues Scale for Jazz Guitar: Solos, Grooves & Patterns, p.6.
ISBN 0-7866-5213-6.
10. Arnold, Bruce (2002). The Essentials: Chord Charts, Scales and Lead Patterns for Guitar,
p.8. ISBN 1-890944-94-7.
11. Harrison, Mark (2003). Blues Piano: Hal Leonard Keyboard Style Series, p.8. ISBN 0-634-
06169-0.
12. Busby, Paul. "Short Scales" (http://google.com/search?q=cache:mGLnCz772wwJ:www.scor
edchanges.com/how-to/shorties.pdf+%22C+Db+E+Gb+G+Bb%22&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl
=us), Scored Changes: Tutorials (http://www.scoredchanges.com/tutorials.htm).
13. C–G♭ is a tritone interval.
14. Dziuba, Mark (2000). The Ultimate Guitar Scale Bible, p.129. ISBN 1-929395-09-4.
15. Nicolas Slonimsky (22 December 2000). Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns (https://
books.google.com/books?id=RiYPAAAACAAJ). Music Sales Corp. ISBN 0-8256-7240-6.
Retrieved Jun 2, 2009.

External links
A model for hexatonic scales in 96-EDO (http://www.96edo.com/Microhexatonic.html)
Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20090116042642/http://www.96edo.com/Microhexato
nic.html) 2009-01-16 at the Wayback Machine, 96edo.com.
Detailed Examination of Hexatonic Scales Originating in the Natural Scale/Harmonic Series
(https://www.academia.edu/2627765/The_European_Folk_Music_Scale_A_New_Theory)
 The origin of triads and musica ficta filling in hexatonic gaps in the diatonic scale (https://ww
w.academia.edu/35544469/The_Provenience_Predominance_and_Persistence_of_the_Mel
odic_Natural_Scale_and_Triadic_Harmony_in_Early_Europe_formed_from_Indo-European
_Herding_Instruments)

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