PERMUTATIONS

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Systematic reorderings of scale degrees and intervals

Permutations create new melodic patterns by reordering the notes or intervals of existing scales.

20 pattern types

PERMUTATION THEORY

Permutations create new patterns by systematically reordering elements. In music, we can permute:

Intervals (creating modes from a scale)
Pitches (creating inversions of chords)
Sequences (twelve-tone row transformations)
Subsets (selecting and reordering scale degrees)

SELECT PERMUTATION TYPE

Reorder the intervals of a scale

Major Scale Rotations

Base: T-T-ST-T-T-T-ST (Ionian)

Dorian

T-ST-T-T-T-ST-T

DEFGABC

Phrygian

ST-T-T-T-ST-T-T

EFGABCD

Lydian

T-T-T-ST-T-T-ST

FGABCDE

Mixolydian

T-T-ST-T-T-ST-T

GABCDEF

Aeolian

T-ST-T-T-ST-T-T

ABCDEFG

Locrian

ST-T-T-ST-T-T-T

BCDEFGA

Harmonic Minor Rotations

Base: T-ST-T-T-ST-m3-ST

Mode 2

ST-T-T-ST-m3-ST-T

DEbFGAbBC

Mode 3

T-T-ST-m3-ST-T-ST

EF#G#ABCD

Mode 4

T-ST-m3-ST-T-ST-T

FGAbBCDEb

Mode 5

ST-m3-ST-T-ST-T-T

GAbBCDEbF

Mode 6

m3-ST-T-ST-T-T-ST

AbBCDEbFG

Mode 7

ST-T-ST-T-T-ST-m3

BCDEbFGAb