Evolving Scales into Arpeggios

Objective. To gain a sense of how the pitches of our major scale are reconfigured into an arpeggio, the midpoint between our more linear scales and vertical chords.

Let's start by extracting the C major scale color from the pitches of the chromatic sale. Example 1.

Now let's examine it's scale degrees. Example 2.

Now lets locate this major scale at the piano. Example 3.

Cool so far? We've seen all of the above components a couple of times now in the first few chapters. Need some help? As we build knowledge chapter by chapter, we simply layer each new topic upon our existing knowledge. If you can get to a piano, play through these pitches a bit. If you've a pianist nearby, try to get them to show you a left and right hand fingering for executing this C major scale smoothly as an entire group of pitches. Tis relatively easy and there's a lot of music to be brought forth right with this one group of pitches and piano keys. (1)

Defining arpeggio. The term "arpeggio", comes to us originally as an Italian word meaning "harplike." (2) Today we use the term to imply that when the arpeggio is sounded, we hear not a stepwise, scale motion but a "broken" scale in major and minor thirds. For example, compare stepwise motion to the "broken" motion of thirds. Example 4.

Interesting that something described as "broken" can still be so very beautiful eh?

Here's the magic. In converting the pitches of the major scale into an arpeggio, we simply create a new sequence of pitches by skipping every other note in the scale. To see this best, we first extend our scale for two full octaves, then apply the magic of skipping every other note to extract our arpeggio. Example 4.

So we can see from the above chart that as we initially skip the pitch D between C and E, we eventually get to include it after the B from the second octave. This goes for the pitches F and A also. Here is a reduced look at the idea above. Example 5.

Cool huh? Simply by skipping every other note. Let's hear the sound of the arpeggio. Example 6.

Interesting sound eh? Get this line under your fingers on your chosen instrument. (For those that try, you will see that it's not that easy.) Vocalists might want to create some lyrics or use their "solfeggio" to help with the exercise. We can create our arpeggios from all of our scale groups within equal temper for they are the organic "bridge" between the melodic and harmonic musical worlds we love. Here's our keyboard again outlining the arpeggio from measures five above. Do notice how we now must span two full octaves to include all of the pitches. Example 7.

So what do we do with arpeggios? Arpeggios are a very cool melodic device that gives players and composers yet another creative resource. This is especially true for our non chordal instruments such as the saxophone. Horn players in general don't usually create chords, but with arpeggios they can "outline or run" any chord ever invented. And if they play the pitches fast enough, their created sound can sometimes come across to the listeners as if they are playing chords. Often generating tremendous excitement in the music, arpeggios are oftentimes used as a "springboard" to vault a melodic idea into musical space. Example 8.

Like the line? Feel how the arpeggio "jump starts" the idea? Of course, starting the phrase on the off beat and using the triplet rhythmic figure helps too eh? In this one idea are a few of the "devices" that composers and players use to transform the "white keys" of the piano into meaningful, personal expression.

Arpeggios are "chord scales." Going back to the music theory, another key use for the arpeggio is to help us learn to quickly spell out the letter names of our chords. This ability to "spell" our chords is the topic of the next chapter. Acquiring this ability is important for beginners as well as advanced players. New learners will find it easier to understand just how things work by understanding how pitches are stacked in various types of thirds to create our chords. More advanced players, when dealing with non-diatonic pitches within "altered" chords and improvising over rapidly moving chord changes, will run around like their hair is on fire when they learn to quickly spell out the pitches of the chords they are soloing over. This improvising ability is a way fun challenge and becomes a big part of the art for the player of American jazz, perhaps the most spontaneous and exciting, as well as theoretically and technically complex style of music ever conceived.

Historically, a case could be made that for many composers, the arpeggios become another type of "scale", when articulated in major and minor thirds as in the examples above, and preceded the vertical harmony of later eras in the polyphonic sounds of the Middle Ages and into the Baroque era. So basically before chords we had arpeggios, circa the 1500's. At this point in our musical evolution, equal temper tuning was not yet consistently applied to most keyboard type instruments, and of course there was no "piano forte" yet, (Cristofori, 1700's), so there really wasn't any harmony like what we enjoy today. At least we have no written record today of such sounds within the music. The arpeggios, or "broken scale" motion in thirds were a natural evolution from scales for players and composers for variety, excitement and texture. And after hearing these arpeggiated sounds enough, the idea of harmony, or stacking pitches that are sounded as one chord, may have gradually evolved. Of course, the tuning of these pitches was one crucial key to allowing the harmony to fully evolve, especially at the keyboard. So if you needed a masters thesis ... maybe trace the historical evolution in the literature from scales into chords via the arpeggios as equal temper tuning emerged. (3)

That is all for this chapter folks, kinda thin on new information but the topic and "theory magic" of the arpeggios are well deserving of their own page. Go on and ace the quiz then zip along to the next chapter where we "stack" the pitches of the arpeggios into our beloved chords.

Review. Italian for "harplike", the term arpeggio describes a unique type of musical resource. It is a "hybrid" of the stepwise scale in the direction of creating chords or harmony. Described as a "broken" scale, the arpeggio is made up of major and minor thirds. In evolving a scale into an arpeggio, we extend or repeat our scale to two full octaves, then simply skip every other note in the scale. When extending an arpeggio to include all of the pitches of the major sale, the expanded arpeggio encompasses two full octaves. Arpeggios are a good way for instruments that cannot play chords to create the effect and force of harmony. The saxophone is one such instrument. Arpeggios are often used as a springboard to vault a melodic idea into the rhythmic air. As with our major and minor scales, any arpeggio can be created from any of the 12 pitches of the chromatic scale.

Vocabulary words for this chapter. (2)

Fill in the blank quiz.

Our scales morph into our arpeggios whose pitches get stacked into chords. Does it get any simpler? Can you sing the pitches of the major scale? Can you sing it's arpeggio? Have any comments or questions perhaps? info@jacmuse.com On to our next topic but first a quote.

Even if your on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there. Will Rogers

"evolution of chords"

Footnotes:

(1) Piano fingerings for the C major scale. In the left hand try pinky (C), ring (D), middle (E), index (F), thumb (G), then cross over with the middle (A), then index (B), then thumb (C). In the right hand try thumb (C), index (D), middle (E), then pass the thumb under, then thumb (F), index (G), middle (A), ring (B) then thumb (C).

(2) Appel, Willie and Ralph T. Daniel. The Harvard Brief Dictionary Of Music. New York: Pocket Books, a Simon and Schuster Division of Gulf and Western, 1960.

(3) Isacoff, Stuart. Temperament ... The Idea That Solved Music's Greatest Riddle, p. 97-103. U.S.A. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. 2001.