12 days of musical terminology, day 10 - whole tone scale

The whole tone scale is to melody what the diminished chord is to harmony. (I only just realised this, and I'm quite proud of the analogy!) You will recall that the diminished chord creates a sense of uncertainty, because all the notes are the same distance apart from each other, so it sounds the same whatever the root note is, and can resolve in many different ways. The whole tone scale creates a sense of melodic uncertainty, for similar reasons: it sounds the same whichever note you start on, because all the notes are the same distance apart.

It tends to be most used in modern music (Debussy, Messiaen, Scriabin etc.), and I can't think of a single choral work that uses an ENTIRE whole tone scale (although I'm sure there is one). However, there are often bits in choral parts that include excerpts from the whole tone scale, which is why it gets mentioned in rehearsals.

The Wikipedia article shows you what the two whole tone scales look like. (There are only two different ones.) To play one on a piano, start on any note, and count two keys to the right (including both black and white keys, but not counting the key you start on). Play the new note, and repeat. The seventh note you play will be an octave above the first one.

The most famous example of a whole tone scale is probably the intro to Stevie Wonder's You are the Sunshine of my Life. There's an entire whole tone scale (actually more than a whole octave - it spans a tenth) in the third and fourth bars, repeated in the seventh and eighth bars. It's even harmonised with ANOTHER whole tone scale (a major third below). It's a very distinctive sound which I'm sure you'll recognise immediately.

If you're singing an excerpt from a whole tone scale, you need to bear in mind that whole tones are usually slightly wider than you think. So if your phrase goes up, be careful not to sing flat, and if your phrase goes down, be careful not to sing sharp.