I'm a programmer by day, have had many advanced math classes, etc, I have no idea what is being presented here. Glad it works for you
Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Heptatonic Chord List
- Thread starter IamGroot
- Start date
I'm an app developer by day and have had no math classes beyond what was required in college. I have a writing degree, so I sure as hell don't know what's being represented.
re: "But How is this useful ?"
there are 4 aspects of "knowing" a musical concept:
1. how it sounds
2. how we play it
3. what we call it
4. how we notate it
This OP , like all giant lists of scales, is essentially communicating #2 and #3.
To be completely useful you gotta do the work for #1 and maybe #4
"binary equivalent" numbers are not part of this scheme but maybe interesting to some
there are 4 aspects of "knowing" a musical concept:
1. how it sounds
2. how we play it
3. what we call it
4. how we notate it
This OP , like all giant lists of scales, is essentially communicating #2 and #3.
To be completely useful you gotta do the work for #1 and maybe #4
"binary equivalent" numbers are not part of this scheme but maybe interesting to some
For a binary representation I would expect something like this:
major scale => C D E F G A B => 1010 1101 0101 (basically you put a 0 for each chromatic step that is skipped)
Though this is backwards vs. normal binary notation with LSB on the right, so I would reverse it to: 1010 1011 0101
or Hex 0xAB5
What is the value of this? Hell if I know! In a way it leaves out the final interval which should be of interest (though you can easily see this by looking at the MSBs - more zero's means larger interval).
Obviously a program could easily be written to dump out all "7-hot" combinations in a 12-bit binary number. Still trying to figure out the value. Might be interesting to build chords from scales. If you "AND" two numbers you get the common values, or "OR" them to combine the notes. Other binary math could be used to do...stuff...with the encoded scales.
I love binary encoding problems and binary arithmetic. You should see my Sudoku puzzle generator and solver I coded in assembly language. Encoding the puzzle in a bit field was really an interesting problem.
major scale => C D E F G A B => 1010 1101 0101 (basically you put a 0 for each chromatic step that is skipped)
Though this is backwards vs. normal binary notation with LSB on the right, so I would reverse it to: 1010 1011 0101
or Hex 0xAB5
What is the value of this? Hell if I know! In a way it leaves out the final interval which should be of interest (though you can easily see this by looking at the MSBs - more zero's means larger interval).
Obviously a program could easily be written to dump out all "7-hot" combinations in a 12-bit binary number. Still trying to figure out the value. Might be interesting to build chords from scales. If you "AND" two numbers you get the common values, or "OR" them to combine the notes. Other binary math could be used to do...stuff...with the encoded scales.
I love binary encoding problems and binary arithmetic. You should see my Sudoku puzzle generator and solver I coded in assembly language. Encoding the puzzle in a bit field was really an interesting problem.
Interesting stuff! I'm curious at your count of 740+ though. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your idea here?
C(12,7) = 792, but aren't most of those combinations just transpositions/rotations of each other?
Even if we counted rotations as unique, we'd still likely end up w/a number substantially less than 740.
IIRC Forte enumerates just 38 seven note sets, with ye olde major scale being 7-35. Of course the traditional modes get the same # and interval vector, but ordinarily these will be treated as different objects by musicians. (i.e. we're working with both order and content here.)
Or am I barking up the wrong tree?
GT
I thought you said you had hepatitis. I was gonna say they have a pill for that now.
It seems to me you are missing the harmonic major scale (= 1 2 3 4 5 b6 7) and its modes. It's actually a useful scale: its 3rd mode (= 1 b2 b3 3 5 b6 b7) sounds really nice over a V7(b9 #9 b13) chord in minor key.
Good luck keeping all that organized in your head when you are playing “Oleo” or “Confirmation” at a high tempo during an impromptu jam session!!! You’ll have a cymbal thrown at your head!!!! Hahaha!!
- Apr 1, 2000
- 17,398
- 9,830
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: Roscoe Guitars, DR Strings, Aguilar Amplification
Know the major scale. Know the relative minor scale. Know the melodic and harmonic minors. Know the augmented and diminished. KNOW YOUR ARPEGGIOS! You can play any song, any time, any where, in any key with that knowledge. Easy squeeze lemon peezy!!!!
“We don’t need no stinkin’ rotten turnip strawberry lollipop wiz bang whoopdedoo” over thinking scale mode garbage.
Play the bass!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha!!!!!!
“We don’t need no stinkin’ rotten turnip strawberry lollipop wiz bang whoopdedoo” over thinking scale mode garbage.
Play the bass!!!!!!!!
Hahahaha!!!!!!
Thanks for thinking about this. Yes C(12, 7) is a good way to start estimating the size. Unique scales would be 792/7=117 families, I think.
But you are also permitting patterns that arent very musical like Epodian that have gaps of 4 notes, hence why the simple C is big, but the useful number of families ,at leaset to my taste is around 10, so 70 scales.
The list is arranged by family , with the 6 other modes following the captialized family name. Its a way to look at the forest, not the trees. And so, we have around 10 families for 7 member scales according to my rules.
