[PIANO MUSIC]
Today we're going to discuss one scale in particular.
We've seen it before as the Lydian flat 7 scale
when we've been using it in the context of a chord
scale for substitute dominants.
We're going to talk about it today as a primary scale which
is used to create passages of music all on its own.
Sometimes the Lydian flat 7 scale is referred
to as the acoustic scale, because the notes of this scale
are actually transpositions of the overtone series up
to a high degree of the audible partials.
So why don't we just lay that out for a moment?
In the overtone series we have the low fundamental.
[PIANO PLAYING]
Then the second partial is the octave above.
Above that we have the fifth, then another octave, then a third.
And then we start to get into this sort of raised 4 territory, up
to the flat 7.
So you get this kind of floating open sound.
It's the sound of the overtone series.
When we transpose that down into scale form, we get this.
[PIANO PLAYING]
Again, I'm just letting that ring so that you
can hear what a beautiful, rich, mysterious beautiful sound that is.
And the C acoustic scale is interesting in that it has attributes of two modes
that we've studied before.
It has attributes of the Lydian.
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So it's first four notes or tetrachords are the Lydian tetrachord.
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Whole step, whole step, whole step.
And it's second tetrachord or four notes is that of the minor scale.
[PIANO PLAYING]
Whole step, half step, whole step.
So in a way, this is-- if we think about this like a mode,
we actually have two characteristic notes.
We have the sharp 4--
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--of Lydian, and the flat 7 of Mixolydian,
which gives us a lot of rich possibilities.
I'm going to just take a moment right now and improvise some music for you
in the C acoustic scale so that you can see some of the potential.
[PIANO PLAYING]
Lovely floating quality isn't it?
It's almost a mystical sound.
In fact the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin created a chord based
on this scale that I've been playing--
[PIANO PLAYING]
--which he called the mystic chord.
You'll notice that as I improvised for you,
I was just simply using the tones of that scale,
arpeggiating them in different ways, playing them in scalar fashion,
creating harmonies that were based on the tonic triad, created variety
by moving to the 5 chord or the 2 chord, which contained
the characteristic note of Mixolydian and the characteristic note of Lydian.
Has a lot of potential.
But basically it's a very consonant, free floating sound
that just allows you to create a gorgeous, glorious, soaring mood.