Beginning with music improvisation: a brief overview of major scale archetypes

Where does musical meaning come from?

All musical meaning emerges from relationships. In order to create relationships, we need a reference point. The tonic note is our starting place, or "center of gravity" within a major scale or key. While the notes of a scale will change if the tonic note changes, the distance between these notes and the tonic will always be the same.

Each note of the major scale has an inherent meaning, or "archetype," based on its relationship to the tonic note. Much of the meaning we experience from music is subjective, as it is filtered through a personal and cultural lens; however, there is a degree of meaning that is innate to each note of the scale.

The distance in pitch between a degree of the scale and the tonic can be measured by the ratio between their frequencies. For example, if the tonic note is A4 (440 HZ), the fifth note of the scale, E5 (660 Hz) is related to the tonic through the ratio 3:2. Every tonic-dominant relationship has this ratio. It is the fixed nature of the ratio which carries its inherent meaning, or "archetype."

Understanding frequency ratios

There are two main parameters that define how we experience intervals, or pitch relationships. The first is the simplicity of the ratio. Intervals which have simpler ratios (smaller fractions) sound more harmonious, while complex ratios sound more dissonant and less stable. For example, the interval of the octave has a ratio of 2:1, which sounds extremely stable. On the other hand, the tritone (the interval between the tonic and the #4/b5) has a ratio of 729:512, which sounds very jarring and discordant.

The second way we experience degrees of the scale relates to their presence in the overtone series. This series (also known as the harmonic series) is a spectrum of additional pitches which resonate when a note is naturally produced. Notes which sound earlier (and more strongly) in the series feel more stable with the tonic. For example, the first three distinct overtones are the tonic, fifth, and major third; which together create a major chord. Because the third (mediant) and fifth (dominant) notes of the major scale appear early in the overtone series and have simple pitch ratios with the tonic, other notes of the scale are pulled towards them.

Tools for improvisation: the archetypes of the scale

I. Tonic: the origin

The first note of the scale is the center of the tonal world. It is the starting point, the place where melodies desire to arrive, and the note in reference to which all other notes of a song are experienced. It communicates a sense of home: stability, rest, harmony, and resolution. It is experienced as the source from which all music flows.

II. Supertonic: the threshold

The second note of the scale, called the supertonic, has a frequency ratio of 9:8 with the tonic. It carries the feeling of a threshold, a sense of departing from or approaching home. It can carry a feeling of expectancy or inquiry, of transience or looking outward.

III. Mediant: the vista

The third note of the major scale has a relationship of 5:4 to the tonic. It carries a sense of brightness and elevation. Because it is one of the early overtones of the tonic, it feels very stable. It can create a sense of a vista - transforming the stability of the tonic note into something more intense and expansive. It feels warm, confident, and prominent.

IV. Subdominant: the expanse

The subdominant holds one of the most important relationships with the tonic note. While the pitch itself doesn't appear early on in the overtone series, it has a very simple ratio of 4:3 with the tonic. It carries a feeling of confident departure and grounded exploration, facilitating smooth movement away from the tonic. The subdominant feels stable, yet expansive, moving outward from the center.

V. Dominant: the confrontation

The dominant is the most important note of the scale after the tonic. It is the first pitch after the octave to appear in the overtone series, and has a ratio of 3:2 to the tonic. The dominant carries a sense of balanced opposition to the tonic, one which sounds confident, confrontational, and climatic. When used in melodies, it can often pose a question - and can be thought of as a musical "question mark" in a sense. It is this expectant nature which sets up anticipation for the tonic.

VI. Submediant: the reach

The sixth note of the major scale has a ratio of 5:3 with the tonic. It carries a sense of mystery, spaciousness, reflection, gentleness, or longing. It often feels pulled to move down to the dominant or up to the tonic through the leading tone. It is perhaps most similar to the second degree of the scale in its feeling, as it has the same relationship with to dominant note as the second scale degree has to the tonic.

VII. Leading tone: the breaking point

The leading tone is the last note of the scale before the tonic repeats. Of all the notes of the major scale, it has the most dissonance with the tonic through a ratio of 15:8. Because it is the highest note of the scale, we also feel the close relationship it has to the upper tonic (the distance of a semitone). The leading tone creates a sense of tension, urgency, insistence, and expectation. It carries a desire to resolve by arriving at the upper tonic.

VIII. Octave (tonic): the reconvergence

Although we use units like hertz to identify and understand pitch, it is ultimately a spectrum. A helpful way to visualize pitch is as a spiral. Because the octave has exactly twice the frequency of the tonic note, it sounds like the same note as the tonic, only higher. This is why we call it by the same name. We can think of the octave as a turn of the spiral—a return to the same note at a higher frequency.

A network of relationships

In addition to the relationships between each note of the scale with the tonic, there is an intricate web of relationships to be found between every note of the scale. Among the most charged of these relationships are those of a semitone. Because they have more complex frequency ratios, they hold more tension and thus more instability. Within each pair of semitones, the note that is less stable with the tonic will generally feel pulled to the note with more stability.

Semitone relationships are found in the major scale between degrees three and four and degree seven and the upper tonic. This creates a pull to move down from four to three and up from the leading tone to the upper tonic.

Creating musical meaning: scientific magic

To some it may seem like intellectually defining relationships reduces our experience of them to a purely cerebral one. However, rather than limiting our experience of music, a scientific understanding provides a starting point from which to begin constructing our own personal, experienced-based syntax of music.

Mentally understanding musical relationships can be helpful, but what truly matters is your ability to notice and identify these relationships in your own experience of music. As you create personal, emotion-based models of specific musical relationships, you develop an the ability to express musical meaning by reconstructing these relationships.

Each archetype can be thought of as a unique aperture to the larger, collective unconscious world of myth. Using a scientific framework to understand music merely helps us identify what is happening - it cannot ultimately penetrate the mystery of where this meaning originates. Understanding language as a tool does not steal your ability to experience awe towards what you describe - instead, it helps you speak about it more articulately. In the same way, understanding musical archetypes gives you the tools to express yourself freely, articulately, and intuitively through the language of music.