music theory Music theory is the study of theoretical frameworks for understanding the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory": The first is the "Elements of music, ...

, the harmonic major scale is a

musical scale In music theory, a scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency. The word "scale" originates from the Latin ''scala'', which literal ...

found in some music from the common practice era and now used occasionally, most often in

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

. It corresponds to the Raga

Sarasangi Sarasangi (pronounced sarasāngi) is a ragam in Carnatic music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Ka ...

in Indian

Carnatic music Carnatic music (known as or in the Dravidian languages) is a system of music commonly associated with South India, including the modern Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and southern Odisha. It is o ...

, or Raag Nat Bhairav in Hindustani music. It can be considered a

major scale The major scale (or Ionian mode) is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales, it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at doubl ...

with the sixth degree lowered, Ionian 6, or the

harmonic minor scale The harmonic minor scale (or Aeolian ♮7 scale) is a Scale (music), musical scale derived from the natural minor scale, with the minor seventh degree raised by one semitone to a major seventh, creating an augmented second between the sixth and ...

with the third degree raised. The intervals between the notes of a harmonic major scale follow the sequence below: : whole, whole, half, whole, half, augmented second, half The harmonic major scale may be used to construct the following chords, which also may be thought of as borrowed from the parallel minor: the dominant minor ninth chord, the fully

diminished seventh In classical music from Western culture, a diminished seventh () is an interval (music), interval produced by Diminution, narrowing a minor seventh by a chromatic semitone,Benward & Saker (2003). ''Music: In Theory and Practice, Vol. I'', p.54. ...

leading tone In music theory, a leading tone (also called subsemitone or leading note in the UK) is a musical note, note or pitch (music), pitch which resolution (music), resolves or "leads" to a note one semitone higher or lower, being a lower and upper lea ...

chord, the

supertonic In music, the supertonic is the second degree () of a diatonic scale, one whole step above the tonic. In the movable do solfège system, the supertonic note is sung as ''re''. The triad built on the supertonic note is called the supertonic ...

diminished triad In music theory, a diminished triad is a triad (music), triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root (chord), root. It is a Minor chord, minor triad with a lowered (flat (music), flattened) Fifth (chord), fifth. When using Chord names and ...

, the supertonic

half-diminished seventh chord In music theory, the half-diminished seventh chord (also known as a half-diminished chord or a minor seventh flat five chord) is a seventh chord composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a tritone, diminished fifth, and ...

, and the minor

subdominant In music, the subdominant is the fourth tonal degree () of the diatonic scale. It is so called because it is the same distance ''below'' the tonic as the dominant is ''above'' the tonicin other words, the tonic is the dominant of the subdomina ...

. It also contains an

augmented triad An augmented triad is a chord, made up of two major thirds (an augmented fifth). The term ''augmented triad'' arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised. When using popular-music symbols, i ...

. The harmonic major scale has its own set of

modes Mode ( meaning "manner, tune, measure, due measure, rhythm, melody") may refer to: Arts and entertainment * MO''D''E (magazine), a defunct U.S. women's fashion magazine * ''Mode'' magazine, a fictional fashion magazine which is the setting fo ...

, distinct from the harmonic minor, melodic minor, and major modes, depending on which note serves as the tonic. Below are the mode names, their degrees, and the following seventh chords that can be built using each modal tonic or degree of the parent mode as the root: a

major seventh chord In music, a major seventh chord is a seventh chord in which the third is a major third above the root and the seventh is a major seventh above the root. The major seventh chord, sometimes also called a ''Delta chord'', can be written as maj7, M7 ...

, a

minor seventh chord In music, a minor seventh chord is a seventh chord composed of a root note, a minor third, a perfect fifth, and a minor seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). In other words, one could think of it as a minor triad with a minor seventh attached to ...

, a

minor major seventh chord A minor major seventh chord, or minor/major seventh chord (also known as the Hitchcock Chord) is a seventh chord composed of a root, minor third, perfect fifth, and major seventh (1, 3, 5, and 7). It can be viewed as a minor triad with an addit ...

, a

dominant seventh chord Domination or dominant may refer to: Society * World domination, structure where one dominant power governs the planet * Colonialism in which one group (usually a nation) invades another region for material gain or to eliminate competition * Ch ...

, an

augmented major seventh chord In music, an augmented major seventh chord or major seventh sharp five chord is a seventh chord composed of a root, major third, augmented fifth, and major seventh (1, 3, 5, 7). It can be viewed as an augmented triad with an additional major seven ...

, and a

diminished seventh chord The diminished seventh chord is a four-note chord (a seventh chord) composed of a Root (chord), root note, together with a minor third, a diminished fifth, and a diminished seventh above the root: (1, 3, 5, 7). For example, the dim ...

. Harmonic minor contains the same types of seventh chords, but in a different order. Altered chord progression

For example, a C major scale consists of the

notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

: C D E F G A B; whereas a C harmonic major scale consists of the notes: C D E F G A B. Notice the sixth note in the sequence is lowered, from A to A. The C harmonic major scale can also be obtained from the C harmonic minor scale, which is C D E F G A B, by raising the E to E. The C harmonic major scale may be derived from the F melodic minor scale with a raised fourth: F G A B C D E. Harmonic major scale C brackets

The harmonic major scale may also be considered a

synthetic scale In music, a synthetic scale is a scale that derives from a traditional diatonic major scale by altering of one degree by a semitone in either direction."Synthetic Musical Scales". Author(s): J. Murray Barbour. Source: ''The American Mathematic ...

, primarily used for implying and relating to various

altered chord An altered chord is a chord that replaces one or more notes from the diatonic scale with a neighboring pitch from the chromatic scale. By the broadest definition, any chord with a non-diatonic chord tone is an altered chord. The simplest examp ...

s, with major and minor qualities in each

tetrachord In music theory, a tetrachord (; ) is a series of four notes separated by three interval (music), intervals. In traditional music theory, a tetrachord always spanned the interval of a perfect fourth, a 4:3 frequency proportion (approx. 498 cent (m ...

. Thus the musical effect of the harmonic major scale is a sound intermediate between harmonic minor and diatonic major, and partaking of both. The harmonic major scale may be used in any system of meantone tuning, such as

19 equal temperament In music, 19 equal temperament, called 19 TET, 19 EDO ("Equal Division of the Octave"), 19-ED2 ("Equal Division of 2:1) or 19 Equal temperament, ET, is the musical temperament, tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 19 equal steps ...

31 equal temperament In music, 31 equal temperament, which can also be abbreviated (31 tone ) or (equal division of the octave), also known as tricesimoprimal, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equally-proportioned steps (e ...

, as well as

12 equal temperament 12 equal temperament (12-ET) is the musical system that divides the octave into 12 parts, all of which are Equal temperament, equally tempered (equally spaced) on a logarithmic scale, with a ratio equal to the Twelfth root of two, 12th root of 2 ...

. One interesting property of this scale is that for any diatonic scale, there is a

relative major In music, 'relative keys' are the major and minor scales that have the same key signatures (enharmonically equivalent), meaning that they share all of the same notes but are arranged in a different order of whole steps and half steps. A pair of m ...

or minor mode, and if each of these is made harmonic major or harmonic minor, the accidental required in each "harmonic" scale is actually the same note spelled

enharmonic In music, two written notes have enharmonic equivalence if they produce the same pitch but are notated differently. Similarly, written intervals, chords, or key signatures are considered enharmonic if they represent identical pitches that ar ...

ally. For example, the added accidental in C harmonic major, A (shown in first image), is enharmonically equivalent to the added accidental, G, in the relative harmonic minor of C major, A harmonic minor. Also, another enharmonic mode of the scale is the Jazz Minor b5 scale (Jeths's mode) (B in C Harmonic Major, Cb in F Jazz Minor b5). Harmonic major scale C thirds

Like the familiar major, melodic minor, and harmonic minor scales, the harmonic major scale has the diatonic thirds property, which means that the interval between notes two steps apart (e.g. the fifth and seventh notes) are separated by a major or minor third, i.e. the interval of three or four semitones.Dmitri Tymoczko (2004). "Scale Networks and Debussy." Journal of Music Theory 48.2: 215-292. There are only seven such scales in equal temperament, including whole tone, hexatonic from alternating minor thirds and semitones, diatonic, ascending melodic minor, harmonic minor, harmonic major, and octatonic (diminished). This property implies that chords formed by taking every other note from some consecutive subset of the scale are triadic, raising the possibility of using tertian harmony together with melodic material from such a scale. The harmonic major scale is also one of the five proper seven-note scales of

equal temperament An equal temperament is a musical temperament or Musical tuning#Tuning systems, tuning system that approximates Just intonation, just intervals by dividing an octave (or other interval) into steps such that the ratio of the frequency, frequencie ...

. Like five of those other six scales, it is a complete circle of thirds; starting from the tonic the pattern is MmmmMMm, where M is a major third and m is a minor third. Harmonic major is not commonly taught as a tonality, so chords borrowed from this diatonic tonality are not recognized as readily as those from the tonalities of major, harmonic minor, and melodic minor. Many popular songs have borrowed chords from the tonality of harmonic major but have not been recognized as doing so. Examples are ' After You've Gone', ' Blackbird', '

Sleep Walk "Sleep Walk" is an instrumental song written, recorded, and released in 1959 by American instrumental rock and roll duo Santo & Johnny Farina, with their uncle Mike Dee playing the drums. Prominently featuring steel guitar, the song was record ...

', '

Dream A Little Dream Of Me "Dream a Little Dream of Me" is a 1930 song with music by Fabian Andre and Wilbur Schwandt and lyrics by Gus Kahn. It was first recorded in February 1931 by Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra, soon followed by Wayne King and His Orchestra with voc ...

References

External links

The Tonal Center page

The Harmonic Major Mode in Nineteenth-Century Theory and Practice

Harmonic Major Scales and its Modes

Harmonic Major Scale - Analysis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harmonic Major Scale Heptatonic scales Hemitonic scales Tritonic scales Musical scales with augmented seconds

References

Further reading

External links