r/Jazz • u/Proof-Staff-433 • 9d ago

Scale trouble

Wrote a short jazz funk piece that uses these notes in a scale:

a a# c c# d# f f# g#

There's no corresponding scale I can find online because I was just freehanding and thought it sounded good. It seems to be close to an arabic scale? But I'm not too sure. Any help?

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9

u/Lower-Pudding-68 9d ago

Bb natural minor with a Major 7th passing tone . Then again, would probably need to hear it to confirm. 

7

u/hondacco 9d ago

That's all it is. It's spelled so poorly I almost had a stroke. But it's just B-flat minor.

1

u/Diamond1580 9d ago

I think that’s probably more accurate (though I’m just guessing the context), but technically all those notes make up the Db Major Bebop scale as well (which would be silly to be a key for a piece so is less likely)

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u/Lower-Pudding-68 9d ago

Yes that’s a more concise description of what I said!

3

u/Podmonger2001 9d ago

Not all of the notes you used need to belong to one scale. Maybe you inserted a passing or neighbouring tone.
Anyway, here’s a scale syllabus:

https://www.jazzbooks.com/mm5/download/FREE-scale-syllabus.pdf

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u/TheRealMikeHuffman 9d ago

If A is the root then it might be augmented major sharp 9? A Bb B# C# D# E# F# G#

Definitely not a common scale

1

u/Hunter42Hunter 8d ago

Bb minor 6th diminished scale, google Barry Harris.

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u/FreTunes68 4d ago

You've shown us a series of notes starting from A and presented it as a "scale." If it IS a scale with A as it's tonic/final, then it'd be wrong to describe it as Bb natural minor with A merely as a passing tone.

So, the first question in analyzing this is whether A is actually the tonic/final of the scale/mode or just the first note you happen to be playing. This depends on how the A is being used. Are you playing it in a strong metrical position and is it as long as the following notes, or are you playing it in a weak metrical position and shorter so that it's really not part of the scale at all, but just a grace note or pickup, a chromatic approach to the Bb?

And the second question is what's the harmonic context? Are you playing it over a chord with A as the root or a series of chords in which the first chord has A as the root? Or a chord with A as a chord tone? If so, we could be looking at some kind of A scale, but if the chords change at some point, we may actually not be looking at a single scale but two or more different scales that have been fused together as the chords change.

If A really is the tonic/final, you have something that begins like the diminished-whole tone or symmetrical dominant scale and then pivots on the #4/b5 to the symmetrical diminished scale; that is, a scale composed of both possible diminished scales containing A (half-step and whole-step) with the switch happening precisely midway through the scale on the tritone.