B whole tone scale on guitar
B whole tone has 6 notes: B C♯ D♯ F G A. Degrees: 1 2 3 ♯4 ♭6 ♭7. Formula: W W W W W W.
What notes are in the B whole tone scale?
B, C♯, D♯, F, G and A. It has 6 notes; its formula in whole and half steps is W W W W W W.
What does B whole tone sound like, and when do you use it?
No center, like a dream: every note the same distance apart. Use it over 7♯5 and 7♭5 (augmented).
To hear it: Voiles — Claude Debussy.
Chord progressions to improvise with B whole tone
In Jam mode (the Jam button above) a band of grand piano, upright bass and drums (recorded instruments) plays these progressions as swing, bossa, groove or ballad, and the fretboard lights up the notes of each chord as it plays. It's a backing track made for this scale in B:
- Parallel (I7♯5–II7♯5): B7♯5 | C♯7♯5. Two augmented chords a whole step apart: no center, like a dream.
B whole tone positions on guitar
In standard tuning (E A D G B E), with 2 notes per string, B whole tone is played in 6 positions along the neck:
- Position 1: frets 3 to 9 (starts on the root)
- Position 2: frets 5 to 11
- Position 3: frets 7 to 13
- Position 4: frets 9 to 15
- Position 5: frets 11 to 17
- Position 6: frets 1 to 7
Same notes as
D♭ whole tone · E♭ whole tone · F whole tone · G whole tone · A whole tone