Well here we go TONAL
CONDITIONS PART 2. Hello, lets pick up
where we left off. So far we've covered 3
tonalities: Major ,Minor, Dominant. Lets
go to the next of the basic tonalities. We
will still be working in the key C, and we
will for now be viewing only the diatonic
and chromatic (western or 12 tones)
versions of this key. Let's visit another
close relative of the Major tonal family,
the Augmented tonal condition.
The Augmented tonality contains a triad
(not a quiad) that is mediated over by a
natural 3rd however the Dominant (5th) is
increasing it's intervallic content by
rising in pitch 1 half step, thereby
changing the distance between the Major
3rd and the 5th from half step/whole step,
to whole step/whole step which means that
this tonal condition is a series of
intervals that equal Major 3rds. This is
also the reason I often giggle when I hear
the term "perfect 5th", because in order
for the Diminished or Augmented tonalities
to even exist ,the 5th has to change!!! I
often think to myself that the only true
"perfect" interval would have to be the
ROOT( key center). The Augmented tonal
condition looks like this : the triad form
1 3 #5 this is also a perfect time to
mention that if you compare scale "tones"
you will notice that the #5th tone of the
Aug. tonality is exactly the same interval
as the Minor 6 of the same key (you will
also notice that this is consistent with
EVERY key) which means that you can access
Minor related tonalities inside a firmly
Major rooted (Augmented) tonality, which
will open up new worlds of possible ideas
such as "polytonal pivoting, or harmonic
regeneration etc," more on those theories
in upcoming lessons (which is the whole
ball of wax, right?).
The Augmented scale is as such:
C D E F G# A B C.
(# means sharp)
You will also note that every note in the
scale is consistent with the Major scale
with the exception of the 5th interval
being raised 1 half step.
Moving along let's check out the Minor
equalivent of the Augmented tonality, the
Diminished tonal condition. For this
example, we will shift to the key of A
Minor (because we can work without sharps
and flats in the basic Minor key of A).
This is one of the most misunderstood of
basic tonalities for several reasons:
1. It contains an uneven interval count.
The true Diminished tonality contains an
extra interval, because it is based on a
symmetrical scale, a synthetic scale, not
occurring from any natural inversion or
mode altering, basically a man made
innovation which is one of the reasons for
the uneven (9note) interval count. The
other reason for 9 notes as opposed to 8
is because the diminished tonality in
similar fashion as it's Major counterpart
the Augmented, also forms a series of
3rds, in this case Minor 3rds.
2. It contains 2, 7ths: WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yep, it's true! The Diminished tonality is
the ONLY tonality that will EVER show 2
flats (bb) when its written (which makes
it pretty easy to identify) it has 2, 7ths
one which is a natural 7th (Major) and the
tell tale double flat bb7 (Diminished)
because of the interval count (Minor3rds)
at resolves itself at the Major (natural)
7th. This again offers more opportunities
to access other tonalities outside of the
one that you may happen to be working in
because of the Major 7th against the Minor
3rd and the flat 5th.
3. It contains a flat 5th interval: this
is the result of the series of half
step/whole step that forms the Minor 3rd
repeated. This brings us to another
misconception about the Diminished
tonality, many people think that the triad
form 1 b3 b5 (A C bE) is the formula for
the diminished tonality however if we take
into consideration that there is a extra
interval ONLY in this tonality, it only
makes sense that the extra interval would
be included as part of it's harmonic
identity, which would make it look more
like a quiad (a 4 note harmonic
construction) and it would appear as such
1 b3 b5 bb7 or A C bE bbG .
Let's look at the scale form A B C D bE F
bbG #G. PLEASE DON'T FREAK
OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though it has an
uneven interval count (and looks kinda
scary) it is still diatonically correct!
This opens you up to the dreaded "whole
tone scale" ha ha ha!!!!! Many players
commonly mistake the Locarin mode for the
diminished scale.
I hope that this may clear up some
questions you may have had about
Diminished land. Well, I gotta go to the
gym so I'll see you next time with
Part 3 on Tonal
Conditions.
