Another more structured way to play outside the established tonality is to employ one of several advanced scales — scales that include more or fewer degrees than standard major or minor scales, with unexpected intervals between teh scale tones.
The advantage of using these advanced scales it that they have a basis in the underlying tonality, ie. they start ‘inside’ but introduce ‘outside elements.
1. Diminished Scale
This scale is distinguished by alternating whole step/half step intervals.
The results in a scale with 9 notes (including the octave) — not the expected 8.
W H W H W H W
1 2 b3 4 b5 b6 6 7
C diminished scale
C D Eb F Gb Ab A B C
Whole Tone Scale
The whole tone scale is unusual in that it has just 7 notes (including the octave).
Each a whole step apart, hence the name.
1 2 3 b5 b6 b7
C D E Gb Ab Bb C
The whole tone scale is surprisingly versatile, particularly in jazz idiom.
It’s appropriate to play with all forms fo the dom 7 chord, particularly dom 7 th chords with a raised 5th.
Blues scale
Blues scale is a 7 -note scale (counting the octave) used when playing blues progression.
It’s unusual in that it doesn’t have a 2nd or 6th degree but does throw a b5 in addition to the regular 5th.
The intervals go like this:
1 1/2 , 1 , 1/2, 1/2, 1 1/2, 1
1 b3 4 b5 5 b7
C Eb F Gb G Bb C
when you are playing the blues scale, it is the b3, b5 and b7 that define the scale’s color.
It fits extremely well against dom 7th chords in blues and jazz music.
although playing all the notes in order might sound a little odd.
Most players vary the intervals when improvising.