In WESTERN music, the “chromatic” scale is made up of 12 individual pitches, each one a half-tone (or semi-tone if you prefer) above or below each other.
Considering the word “chromatic” is derived from the Greek word “chroma” which means colour, the “chromatic” scale diagram above is not colourful at all…
However, using the term “chromatic” is a great clue as to why relating musical tones to colours is a fascinating and extremely useful concept.
Let’s look at why…
Now, the most important and commonly used scale in WESTERN music is the MAJOR scale.
In the key of C MAJOR, the MAJOR scale (or IONIAN mode) contains the notes –
C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
As you can see on the chromatic scale diagram above, the C MAJOR scale contains no sharps or flats (accidentals), therefore, it is the simplest form of a MAJOR scale.
If we map out the position of all the notes of the C MAJOR scale on to the guitar fretboard (in standard tuning), this is how it looks:
Okay, so what if we put markings like this on the fretboard to help us navigate our way through scale, mode or arpeggio formations, would that be of any real use to us?
Certainly not…
There is nothing to help us distinguish the individual notes, it is difficult to see any distinct patterns, it just looks like a jumbled mess.
Worse still – a typical marking system on the guitar fretboard like the one below gives us very little help to navigate the fretboard effectively:
Apart from the markers at the 12th and 24th fret, which mark the start or end of an octave, all the other markers show you is where the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 15th, 17th, 19th and 21st frets are.
Even if you have thorough knowledge of the fretboard, these markers are of little practical use to us.
It’s about time things were made clearer and easier.
Thankfully, there is a far better solution available to help us navigate the guitar fretboard and identify a huge variety of scale, mode and arpeggio patterns and enable us to master the whole of the guitar fretboard quickly and easily –
We can unleash the power of the 7 colours of the rainbow.
Now, you may remember from your schooldays that the seven separate colours of the rainbow are –
RED, ORANGE, YELLOW, GREEN, BLUE, INDIGO and VIOLET.
We usually memorized this sequence using either –
“ROY GB IV”
or the mnemonic – Richard Of York Gave Battle In Vain.
The 7 different colours from the “visible spectrum” of the rainbow gives us an ideal analogy for the 7 distinct intervals of the musical octave.
When we assign the colour and distinctive shapes above to each of the 12 semi-tones of the CHROMATIC scale, we can immediately see how much clearer this makes everything:
I like to think of this as the “sonic” spectrum.
Now, the colour and shape of each of the notes in our “sonic” spectrum helps us to immediately identify the root note of all of the MODES of not only the C MAJOR scale but any other MAJOR scale in ANY KEY.
The most important thing for us to remember is that the tone and pattern structure of any MAJOR scale and its MODES remains the same for ANY KEY.
Don’t worry if you are struggling to understand the concept and use of musical MODES at this point.
There is a fuller explanation of the structure and use of all of the MODES of the MAJOR scale in the MODES chapter of this manual.
Okay, so let’s have a first look at the MAJOR scale (or IONIAN mode) and its MODES in more detail and see how we can relate them to our “sonic” spectrum –
The MAJOR scale (which is also called the IONIAN mode) starts with the RED square.
A MAJOR scale is so called because it contains a major 3rd interval.
The concept of intervals will be fully discussed in the next chapter.
Its tone structure of whole (W) and half or semi-tones (H) is the same as any other MAJOR scale/IONIAN mode in any key –
W – W – H – W – W – W – H
The “relative” or “natural” MINOR scale (also called the AEOLIAN mode) starts with the INDIGO square and has the same tone structure in any key –
A MINOR scale is so called because it contains a minor 3rd interval.
Its tone structure is –
W – H – W – W – H – W – W
The DORIAN and PHRYGIAN modes start on the ORANGE and YELLOW circles respectively.
The tone structure of the DORIAN mode in any key is –
W – H – W – W – W – H – W
The tone structure of the PHRYGIAN mode in any key is –
H – W – W – W – H – W – W
Whilst these 2 MODES are both MINOR quality modes (that is, they contain a minor 3rd interval), they are NEITHER a “relative” nor “natural” minor scale to the parent MAJOR scale.
To avoid confusion, you should not think of them as the DORIAN or PHRYGIAN “scale” – they are simply the other 2 minor MODES of the parent MAJOR scale.
The GREEN diamond shape represents the starting point of the LYDIAN mode (which is major in quality as it contains a major 3rd interval).
The tone structure of the LYDIAN mode in any key is –
W – W – W – H – W – W – H
The VIOLET diamond shape represents the LOCRIAN mode (which is neither of fully major nor minor quality as it contains a minor 3rd interval AND a FLATTENED 5th interval, that is, the 3rd and 5th note is separated by another consecutive minor 3rd interval).
The tone structure of the LOCRIAN mode in any key is –
H – W – W – H – W – W – W
The distinct diamond shapes were chosen for a very specific reason.
They are immediately identifiable as the 2 half or semi-tones that are OMITTED from the parent MAJOR or MINOR scale to play the MAJOR/MINOR pentatonic scales, or the BLUES or MAJOR BLUES scale patterns.
That is, for example, to form a C major pentatonic scale, the 4th note (F) and 7th note (B) are omitted from the C major scale/C IONIAN mode – (C, D, E, F, G, A and B), which leaves the notes C, D, E, G and A.
The MAJOR pentatonic scale formula is –
R, 2, 3, 5 and 6
To form an A minor pentatonic scale, the 2nd note (B) and 6th note (F) are omitted from the A minor/A AEOLIAN mode – (A, B, C, D, E, F and G), which leaves the notes A, C, D, E and G.
The MINOR pentatonic scale formula is –
R, b3, 4, 5 and 7
We will look at the formation and use of pentatonic and blues scales in great depth later on.
Finally, the MIXOLYDIAN mode starts on the BLUE circle.
The MIXOLYDIAN mode is of MAJOR quality because it contains a major 3rd interval.
However, the MIXOLYDIAN mode also contains a flattened 7th note, which gives this MODE and the chords formed from it a unique character and sound.
Here are a few interesting (and quite spooky) facts.
The MIXOLYDIAN mode and the chords made from it are extensively used in BLUES music.
Using our colour system derived from the “sonic” spectrum, we could call the MIXOLYDIAN mode the “BLUE” mode as it always starts on the 5th degree of any MAJOR scale.
Now, the 3 PRIMARY colours of the visible spectrum are RED, GREEN and BLUE.
When aligned with our “sonic” spectrum, these PRIMARY colours relate to the 3 MAJOR quality modes:
That is, the IONIAN, LYDIAN and MIXOLYDIAN modes.
Is this just mere coincidence?
This should convince you, as it did me, that music and colour is far more closely related than we might think.
Next up, we will explore the concept and use of musical intervals.
