Re: 351 possible scales?

(I once saw a thick book of hundreds of
>scales
>compiled by Nicholas Slonimsky; however, to me it looked comprehensive, but
>not
>all that systematic.)

Slonimsky's book has a different system - as I understand it he splits the scale into equal divisions of intervals and then "interpolates" approaches to each tone. For example, when the scale is split in thirds (say C, E, G#, C) he then builds scales by approaching E, G#, and C from a half step below, half step above, and combinations of same. The book is called "Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns" and the emphasis is on the patterns.

Incidentally it's a great book for an improvisor to practice from.

Franz

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Franz,

Hello!

This is a wonderful book too! There was a great story in "The Real
Frank Zappa Book" about Zappa having the late Slonimsky over to his
house, where he explained this concept to Zappa.

I have explored this book too. I used to fancy that it represented a
sort of Raga book of Western Music.

I read that John Coltrane used it extensively for study.

I also greatly enjoyed his "Lexicon of Musical Invective", although
I'm sure that no one will recoginze this influence! }: )

Thanks for posting about this,

Jacky Ligon

--- In tuning@egroups.com, "Franz Nicolay" <franz_nicolay@h...> wrote:
>
> Slonimsky's book has a different system - as I understand it he
splits the
> scale into equal divisions of intervals and then "interpolates"
approaches
> to each tone. For example, when the scale is split in thirds (say
C, E, G#,
> C) he then builds scales by approaching E, G#, and C from a half
step below,
> half step above, and combinations of same. The book is
called "Thesaurus of
> Scales and Melodic Patterns" and the emphasis is on the patterns.
>
> Incidentally it's a great book for an improvisor to practice from.
>
> Franz
>
>
>
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http://explorer.msn.com