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Tritone Interval and Seventh Note: Importance in Creating a Successful Scale
A successful scale should not form a tritone interval (6 semitones) with the tonic note (which is the case with the Lydian and Locrian modes). Also, the seventh note needs to be a semitone away from the tonic note to provide tension and propulsion.
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All of them except the Lydian wimp out at scale degree 7, the all-important leading tone. Instead of a semitone pointing strongly at 1 (8), they have a much-less-dissonant whole tone. Not enough tension and propulsion to establish 1 (8) as the note-of-notes, the alpha dog, the head honcho, the top banana, the big cheese, the great enchilada, the prime kahuna: Elvis, King of Scale Degrees.
If you’re a musical mode on the make, and you can’t even recognize that the cab driver showing you around Muscle Shoals is Elvis, how can you expect anybody to take you seriously enough to buy your music?
- And, as mentioned, two of them, the Lydian and Locrian, form a tritone interval with the tonic.
More on Church modes and harmony towards the end of Chapter 6.