Can You Play "off Notes" Around A Current Scale?

[thesound]

I was looking at a few different bands and I noticed that they were playing to a scale but I also noticed that they (the player) played notes that were not in the scale, mainly it is one note at one time. The rest of the notes were in a scale. I searched for scales that featured the notes played.. nada!

I am guessing it is all down to the moment and what the players like.. Nobody is going to knock on there doors and sue them or cancel their concert or deals based on a note that is not in scale.

[FinnArild]

Playing notes that are not in scale are actually strictly forbidden - in some countries punishable by death. That's rock'n'roll you know - living on the edge!

[FinnArild]

Wow, really, which countries? - LOL ....always got to be a wise-guys in the crowd, right Finn?

Yep, that's the Finn you know and love which I try to live up to ...

[thesound]

Actually, it's extremely common.....and by no means anything new. Players & writers stray outside of strict key structure all the time. For lead guitarists, many times these things appear in the form of passing notes, which are played quickly (*in passing) on the way to notes that are more dominant in the given key. Notes like flattened 5ths & minor 7ths are added to standard patterns all the time. In the end, most experienced musicians & writers tend to view strict key structure as a guideline, allowing their ears to be the final judge of what sound acceptable. Hope this helps a bit.

Yes, it sort of echoes what I was thinking but not knowing. Thanks. I have always viewed scales like bike stablisers.. except maybe you keep them on most of the time. Not the best analogy! Maybe the speed limit would be a better analogy.

[Lazz]

Can You Play "off Notes" Around A Current Scale?

Even beyond the concept of 'passing tones', it is not uncommon in the music I listen to (don't know so much about rock 'n' roll) where the practice is known as getting "out" or "outside" (of the changes) and the challenge is recognised, as ever, as being able to make it happen in a coherent fashion.

The working theories behind the practice generally employ notions of consonance and dissonance to generate tension and release. The ideas with which I am most familiar, for example, use patterns of pentatonics rooted on those regular scale tones with the intent that some of them get further "out" than others, while other root choices will gradually bring their notes more and more back inside. The goal of taking it "out" is to bring it all back "in" neatly and happily - tension and release.

Generally, it is based on the idea that whatever phrases are played, it is the manner of their ultimate resolution which define the strategy's most pleasing successes.

If anyone gets around to analysing the work of jazz innovators like Joe Henderson or McCoy Tyner, these patterns of consonant/dissonant pentatonics become a useful way of theoretically making sense of what they're doing in practice. Players generally start exploring this area once they've got their orthodox theory together. A lot of contemporary guitarists who have gone through bits of formal music education have naturally incorporated all those ideas into their vocabulary, but it is not a level of sophistication usually applicable or appropriate to everyday pop music - yet I can hear the occasional "progressive" rock 'n' roller getting away with it effectively on occasion.

It all depends on what the ear will accommodate.

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