Augmented Tonality I - The Whole Tone Scale

Guitarist Juampy Juarez opens his Augmented Tonality series with a deep dive into the whole tone scale — a six-note, fully symmetrical sound that entered Western music with Richard Wagner and sits, in Juampy's view, right at the limit between tonality and atonality. He shares the variations and investigations he developed after noticing that most improvisers never take full advantage of this scale.

What's covered

• How the scale is built (hexatonic and symmetrical — every note works as the root) and why there are really only two whole tone scales
• Where it works best: over dominant chords, in major and minor blues, standards, and ii-V-I progressions
• Fretboard positions: three-notes-per-string and two-notes-per-string fingerings that exploit the scale's symmetry
• New augmented licks, phrases, and two-line ideas
• The challenge of making the scale melodic, and listening references from Ives, Schoenberg, Bartók, and Berg to Coltrane, Steve Coleman, John Scofield, and Pat Metheny
• Building chords from the scale, like C7 with a flat five or raised fifth — and why film composers call it the "dream scale"

For improvisers who want to add a darker color to their vocabulary and know exactly when to reach for it. Juampy hopes you enjoy the journey to the augmented world.