Does anyone know how i can scale a pitch value?
goal is to get a conventional dorian (or whatever) scale.

d e f g a b c d
146Hz 164Hz 174Hz 195Hz 220Hz 246Hz 261Hz 293Hz

Somehow the [scale] object dont want to play with me.....: (

any suggestion helps!

flo.

THANK YOU!!!!!!

allthebest

flo.

diatonic scales can be reached by shifting in semitones through your root scale. i modified the patch above, so you can select between the diatonic scales (ionian, dorian, phrygian,...) by shifting step by step through a root scale that is saved in an array.
see the attachment.

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/diatonic.pd

the same patch but with a toggle to switch to shift in thirds, so you only hear the notes of the corresponding chord (prime, third, quint, seventh).

http://www.pdpatchrepo.info/hurleur/diatonic_2.pd

ök....

this is pretty much answer....i had only time to build something with the first....
pretty slow : ) the weekend is free!!!

thanksalot!!!

flo.

hi,

its a little bit simpler to work with lorenzosu´s patch because its (easily) possible to have "strange" scale like in harmonic or melodic minor by changing the message box. arrays are my enemys : )
i have to work with them for a while ( i think...)
the arpegiator idea is definately cool....(the thirds)

thxalotagain!

flo.

all you have to do is to put the base scale of your choice into the array (only by adjusting the pitches step by step).
then you can shift through all diatonic scales of your base scale and also just listen the single notes of the corresponding quad chords. simple, i think!

edit: by the way, could someone tell me, how a chord, consisting of four sounds, is called in english? i could not find it in my dictionarray, only "triads" for chords consisting of 3 sounds.
tanks in advance!

I saw the term "tetrad" on the internet, although have never seen anybody using it throughout my 6 years of academic life. In case of tonal music, simply saying 7th or added chord would be enough to mean 4 note chord since they are named after the fourth note added to a triad, such as Major 7th, Dominant 7th, min add9, Maj add#11, etc. Similarly, saying 9th would immediately recall a five note chord; 11th - 6 and 13th - 7 note chord.

In other cases, like, quartal harmony, atonal or micro-tonal music, it's the safest to say simply "4 note chord", "5 note chord", "12 note chord" etc.

I've never seen "tetrad," but I have encountered "tetrachord" a number of times and wonder if it's the same thing, or similar. In my experience, anyway, tetrachord is just a way of dividing a Western seven-note mode (doubled at the octave, so it's actually eight notes all together) in half as a way of seeing the whole-step/half-step relationships better. So it's not really a chord in the traditional sense. It also seems like something only piano players really concern themselves with. Not sure why, though.

Although historically used in a slightly different way, in today's modern theory, a tetrachord is a four note scalar pattern within the interval of fourth. There are fundamentally 4 of them:

Lydian - C D E F#
Ionian - C D E F
Dorian - C D Eb F
Phrygian - C Db Eb F

All of the fundamental scales that are used in Western Music are made of combining these tetrachords together. For instance:
Locrian is made of a combination of Phyrgian and Lydian tetrachords separated from each other by the interval of minor 2nd:
C Db Eb F < --- > Gb Ab Bb C
--C Phrygian--| min 2 |----Gb Lydian----

Now, of course you can come up with more authentic tetrachords other than these four and combine them together in any way you want to create many distinct sounding synthetic scales.
i.e.:
C Db Eb F# -- G Ab B C
in which two altered phrygian tetrachords combined together with a minor 2nd interval.

I don't know how you've got the impression of pianists only dealing with such theoretical things Maelstorm, but the truth is, this bit of theory has been greatly favored by several composers from Prokofiev, Bartok, Stravinsky to John Zorn, John Adams and many jazz giants who based their music on modal harmony, like Coltrane, Miles, Coleman, Monk, Sun Ra etc.

@tcihan said:

I don't know how you've got the impression of pianists only dealing with such theoretical things Maelstorm, but the truth is, this bit of theory has been greatly favored by several composers from Prokofiev, Bartok, Stravinsky to John Zorn, John Adams and many jazz giants who based their music on modal harmony, like Coltrane, Miles, Coleman, Monk, Sun Ra etc.

Well, I mainly got this impression based on the fact that the few teachers I've had that have brought this up sort of gloss over it a bit. I've taken a few elementary piano lessons, and tetrachords were discussed fairly early on in those lessons. They seemed to be more rooted in finger exercises as a way of seeing scales better on the keys and fingers. Of course, these were elementary lessons, so perhaps not much weight should be given to them. However, as a guitarist, I've never come across them in guitar theory. I've also found that performers who don't play piano often look at me with blank stares when I bring up tetrachords. Perhaps this is simply a difference in our academic backgrounds.

Anyway, I take it from your post that a tetrad is not a tetrachord, which is really all I was looking for.

I guess it's the academic background as you said Maelstorm. All throughout my undergrad studies as a jazz guitarist, the one thing I mainly had to deal with was these tetrachords. Now having my doctorate degree in composition, they are still my favorite tools to create distinctive sonorities.

I'm not sure about the term tetrad though. Although as a word it makes sense, as I said, I've never seen any of my instructors or colleagues using such a term.