Whole Tone Ideas

gill 2/26/2004 6:02 AM
I would like to know more about how to use a whole tone scale. I use it a little in my playing but I need a broader picture of how to use it and really make it work. also using Lydian flat 7 ideas. Thanks gill

Don Mock 2/27/2004 9:03 PM
Thanks for the post Gill. I hate to promote my books too much but heck both the scales you mentioned I have written pretty involved books on the subject. I just finished the "Symmetric Scales Revealed" book and it's almost an over kill on the diminished and whole tone scales. I wrote it nearly 3 years ago but didn't get around to recording the CD for it until a few months ago. And it was a bit tough cause I forgot a lot of the lines and examples that I had written. But it's done now and came out pretty good. The whole tone section shows lots of sequences, and fingerboard shape ideas as well as lots of licks. It's pretty much a dominant 7th scale but can also be used over a few other situations. The other scale "Lydian b7" is really a melodic minor and I "wrote the book" on that one too "Melodic Minor Revealed". G Lydian b7, by the way, is actually D melodic minor. Some like to use the modal names, (Lydian b7) but you can also do really well using the "key center" approach, which in this case over a dominant 7th, play a melodic minor "up a fifth." Same result, just don't have to learn the 7 modes of melodic minor. -Don