Extended Scales 9, 11 and 13

[stewblack]

First up I watched the rather wonderful Adam Neely who was keen to help me break out of my root, 3rd, 5th rut.

Then I turned to the also wonderful Mark from talking Bass for a little clarification.

And finally I produced this sheet based on what Mark plays at 10:31.

Extended_Scales C.pdf

I hope it's of use to you as it has been to me. I shall work through the other keys and post the sheets in this thread as I finish them. Please (if you already know this stuff) could you take a quick look at my work for mistakes. My medication causes me to drift, lose concentration. Sometimes I might sharpen notes I should flatten, that kind of thing. Thank you.

Edited December 31, 2020 by stewblack

[Doddy]

If you've ever read The Jazz Theory Book, when it talks about scales it refers to them as their extensions. So rather than 1 2 3 4 5 6 7,  it views them as 1 9 3 11 5 13 7.  I always found that pretty handy especially when I'm playing jazz.

[stewblack]

3 hours ago, Doddy said:

If you've ever read The Jazz Theory Book, when it talks about scales it refers to them as their extensions. So rather than 1 2 3 4 5 6 7,  it views them as 1 9 3 11 5 13 7.  I always found that pretty handy especially when I'm playing jazz.

Am I right in saying that the more colourful ones (9,11,13) should be played higher than the scale? 

[Doddy]

2 hours ago, stewblack said:

Am I right in saying that the more colourful ones (9,11,13) should be played higher than the scale? 

If you are arpeggiating the chords then you probably will play them an octave up but otherwise you can play them anywhere depending on context. They are all just scale notes anyway, just going up in 3rds. 

[Guest]

Further clarification (or not!): this is an example where the same note can serve more than one function.

If you play C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C as an ascending line, most people would say it’s Root, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th scale tones.

However if you played these same notes by alternating scale tones over a couple of octaves, so C, E, G, B, D, F, A, you have the same 7 notes, but in this context most would say this is Root, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th, 11th and 13th chord tones.

9/11/13 are called extensions because they’re thought of as chord tones above the octave.

Another reason for calling them extensions is that they can frequently be altered above the same basic 3- or 4-note chord, so C7b9 or C7#9. The key difference is that you can’t generally change the major chord tones without changing the chord, whereas extensions are thought of as changeable. The 5th degree is changeable but is often thought of as either 11th or 13th, so a b5 (for example a C7b5 back in bebop times) would more often be written C7#11, and a C7#5 (usually indicating an augmented scale sound) may also be written C7b13 (more of a diminished or harmonic minor sound).

Finally, the upper extensions of a chord can form a basis for more advanced harmonic ideas. For example, over a Cm7 chord you can play a C minor pentatonic scale as basic improvisation (R, 3, 4, 5, 7).

For a more interesting flavour you can instead play a G minor pentatonic scale (in this case 5, 7, R, 9, 11 tones within C minor), implying a G minor sound over a Cm7 chord.

Another interesting sound is to play a D minor pentatonic scale (9, 11, 5, 13, R tones within C minor), implying a D minor sound.

The beauty of these is that you can just think of something simple (a pentatonic scale), but instead of starting it on the root, start on the 2nd note or 5th note of the scale. Even starting on the root of these other scales, you imply upper extensions and a more sophisticated sound. As Doddy says, when improvising you can play these extensions in any octave.

Edited January 6, 2021 by FDC484950
Typo

[stewblack]

That's wonderful, thank you so much @FDC484950