Harmonic Pitch - User scales

  • Hi all,

    can someone explain how to create a custom user scale?

    I've read the manual and tried to create one, but I'm struggling

    with the concept and it sounds weird?

    Just t o give and example. I was working on the song

    Holiday by Green Day.

  • Hello, after a quick listen it is a fairly straightforward major and minor third sequence for the opening riff.

    I assume you will play the fundamental.


    In this instance, choose User scale 1 + 1 Oct and set the key to Ab/Fm.


    Going in to Edit Scale 1, you'll see the associated steps and the intervals which you need to input


    Step 1 = 4

    Step 6 = 4

    Step 8 = 4

    Step 10 = 3


    Edit all the unused Steps to 0 (to avaoid any false harmony triggering)


    Hope this helps .....

  • seems to me like straightforward F minor harmonized with an octave + third above.


    No user scale necessary, simply select Ab/Fm as key and Oct+3rd as interval.


    User scales are needed to harmonize scales other than what is most often called major/minor (ionian/aeolian) and all related modes.

    As soon as you move to melodic or harmonic minor and their modes, you'll need User Scales. Or for symmetrical scales, or so-calles 'exotic' scales, or 'special' purposes, like harmonizing every note with let's say an A, to create a faux drone sound like a bagpipe for example.


    hth

  • seems to me like straightforward F minor harmonized with an octave + third above

    Which gives you the same end result, but I find the pitch tracking is not perfectly stable and finger vibrato, glissando or string bending can easily confuse the fretted notes harmony ...


    That's why, for me, a user scale whereby you neutralise the unused notes, works better for me ...



  • Thanks @lento1234567.

    definitely not like what I did (hence it doesn't sound right at all!) ...and didn't think of setting the unused steps to zero either. What I still don't quite get is the 'step' thing. Looking at yours you have Step1 then 6 the 8 then 10...that's still confusing.


  • Thanks @DonPetersen....it wasn't so much this song and yes i have a few song with harmonies that are straight forward and no issues with them at all. I was trying to get my head into the users scales and it was this song I was noodling around. Anyway, I'm not sure about the whole step thing and just want to learn how this works.

    @lento1234567 has provided a good example, now i just need to understand how the 'step' thing works.

  • From page 179 of the Kemper main manual v7 is a diagram showing an example of steps and harmonised voices.


    The steps are the chromatic intervals of the chosen scale, whereby Step 0 is the tonic (in this case Ab) Step 1 would be A , Step 2 would be Bb, all the way up to step 11 which is G.


    Hope that makes it clearer .....

  • From page 179 of the Kemper main manual v7 is a diagram showing an example of steps and harmonised voices.


    The steps are the chromatic intervals of the chosen scale, whereby Step 0 is the tonic (in this case Ab) Step 1 would be A , Step 2 would be Bb, all the way up to step 11 which is G.


    Hope that makes it clearer .....

    That's better mate, thanks. I was looking at it today (in the manual) but couldn't figure it out. Now it make more sense. Thanks again, much appreciated. :thumbup: