Capricious By Dave Creamer

In this lesson we look at Capricious, a composition based entirely on the eight notes of octatonic (eight note) scale #33 in G major.

To begin, I would recommend taking a moment to listen to the audio and review the music notation (which can also be downloaded). Additionally, if you don't already have my book "The Hidden Symmetry of the 43 Octatonic Scales and 43 Tetrachords," you may want to download (or purchase) that as well as all of the fundamental concepts utilized here are explained in the first section of the book. If you are not ready to purchase the book, the first section can be viewed at no cost. 

The primary observations in this composition is that it is composed using only the eight notes of octatonic scale #33 in G major. Those notes are G, A, Bb, B, D, D#, E, F#. Also note that the chords in Capricious consist almost entirely of CAPS or “complementary arpeggio pairs” (an in-depth explanation of the CAPS system is available in the book but for the purpose of this lesson, CAPS are a combination of two tetrachords (four note chords) when combined, make up all eight notes of the scale). The included diagram from the book lists the 35 Complementary Pairs and the 10 Harmonizations of the Octatonic Scales which will help you visualize how these are applied. For example if you combine the notes in CAPS 1a. and 1b. you will have two tetrachords that use all eight notes of scale #33. One thing to notice if you are using the book is that while the 10 Harmonizations and CAPS explanations apply to all the scales, the first section of the book examples use scale #40 in the key of G major. 
 

Now let's look at the musical notation for Section A. I start by using two sets of caps, 5a., 5b. and 7a., 7b. I then reverse that order to 5b., 5a., 7b., and 7a. which is eight bars in 6/4 time. The next eight bars is the same set of CAPS an octave below. You should notice that while I've given each set of four notes a chord name, there can be many names for any set of four notes. As the composition continues, each measure includes both the chord name and its corresponding CAPS number. 

Most importantly, just listen to how these CAPS work together and find ways to experiment with them. Hopefully you will find this new palette of sounds inspiring and can start applying these ideas to other octatonic scales as well. It’s also worth mentioning that for guitar players, some of these voicings will be new and technically challenging at first. Take your time and as you become more familiar with them, you will find them to be great additions to your existing vocabulary. 

Dave Creamer 2023