I recently discovered an awesome book by NYC alto saxophonist / composer John O’Gallagher, entitled “Twelve Tone Improvisation” (Advance Music) after stumbling upon it via a Dave Douglas podcast. O’Gallagher is a monster alto player with a fresh & unique concept. After hearing some of the music from the podcast off of his latest CD “The Anton Webern Project” and how “sophisticatedly funky” it sounded (Anton Webern gets jacked by Ornette meets Sun-Ra meets Bitches Brew), I got so excited I bought both the book & the CD. Although I’ve previously had some minimal exposure to twelve tone rows in … Read More
Category Archives: Augmented Scale
The Augmented Scale is a symmetrical six note (hexatonic) scale. It can best be described as being formed by two augmented triads a minor 3rd apart (C aug & Eb aug) or, with different inversions, a half step apart. (C aug & C# aug). It can also be viewed as being made up of three Major triads, a Major 3rd apart. From C, the resulting hexatonic scales would be: C – Eb – E – G – G# – B (stepwise: -3, 1/2, -3, 1/2, -3), or C – C# – E – F – G# – A (1/2, -3, … Read More