If you're a nerd and a guitar player like myself, eventually you'll most likely encounter a book known as:
The Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns
So what is it?
Originally published in 1947, Nicolas Slonimsky's book, Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns is a “reference” book for musicians. After a few years of not selling many copies, saxophone legend John Coltrane popularized it as a practice tool among jazz artists, then other musicians and composers picked it up and began employing it in their compositions, and now it's somewhat famous in musical circles.
“John Coltrane would leave for a road trip with the Quartet carrying nothing but his horn case and the Slonimsky book.” -McCoy Tyner
For many people the Thesaurus provided a glimpse into areas beyond the common scales used in Western music and into places rarely explored. However, many musicians today are still puzzled by Slonimsky's book due to him providing no explicit advice on how to apply the patterns and ideas, while only giving some basic clues about harmonization as he simultaneously employed a bizarre naming convention, using phrases such as “symmetric interpolation” and “infra-inter-ultrapolation” and “diatessaron and diapente notes" and “sesquitone and quinquetone progressions," etc. Fortunately Dave Celentano published a guitar version of the Thesaurus with tablature, plucking out selections that were more applicable to guitar (he left out over 1000 patterns from the original text). Consult the original Slonimsky book if you want to work on improving your music reading skills, while also giving your brain a good workout by puzzling over Slonimsky's bizarre nomenclature.
Here is tablature for Slonimsky Melodic Pattern No. 10:
There are easier patterns in the book, but I like this one because it's challenging due to the finger stretch if you play it three-notes per string using your index, middle, and pinky fingers, as I do. Be sure to warm your hands up properly before attempting!
Select a pattern from Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns and have fun seeing what kind of music you can create!
