Written by Chi-pin Hsieh 文 / 謝啟彬
The Mystery of HMP5↓ Scale （中文翻譯在下）
G HMP5↓ Scale means G-Ab-B-C-D-Eb-F-G (1-b2-3-4-5-b6-b7, if the 1 is G), and it's C Harmonic Minor Scale (C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B-C) starting from the 5th, so is it 5th down or 4th up? Is it arrow down (↓) or up (↑)? What is the Root actually? G or C? Isn't it C HMP5↑ Scale if you mean C Harmonic Minor Scale starting from the 5th note? (which was used on G7b9b13 and normally resolve to Cm)
It's very weird, when we started to approach Jazz some thirty years ago, there was a jazz piano book by a Japanese Jazz Piano Teacher called 坂元輝 (Teru Sakamoto) kinda popular locally around Taipei, his books were translated into Traditional Chinese, we used to laugh at HMP5↓ and called it (Ham)burger King Scale!
The article is my "Thesis" on this, I think it should be called Harmonic Minor starting from the 5th (or the 5th Mode of HM), and not Harmonic Minor of Perfect 5th Below, especially the arrow down is very annoying - HMP5↓??????, not only English Speaking Countries, people in Chinese Speaking Countries couldn't understand either, what kind of grammar is this? ^^
According to my Japanese Jazz pianist friend Ryota Ueda, it's a Japanese way(manner) of indicating things, which annoyed them too:
HMP5↓ scale means “There is a Harmonic Minor Scale at perfect 5th below in this scale”
Quite indirect, huh? Take jazz standard "Caravan" as an example, it's not difficult to understand the sound, we can find many example in Chopin's music: Dominant Chord resolves to Minor Chord.
Berklee College of Music in Boston has a sufficient way to call it Mixolydian b9b13 Scale, it's fine but you need to create a good melody by yourself, don't JUST play the scale up and down, that's the side-effect of Chord-Scale Theory
It's the same as Mixolydian b2b6 Scale, some people call it that way, and some educators consider b2 and b6 mean kinda Phrygian, so they call the same scale Phrygian Dominant Scale. For me, as long as you know where to use it, the names don't matter at all
The ridiculous thing happend when Jazz beginners thought there are SO MANY Scale and Names to remember, which is not!
And there is another consideration: Besides Classical & Jazz, I have background on playing and teaching Latin music and World music too, if you were in Afro-Cuban music or Flamenco music, Spanish music, Gypsy music, even Klezmer/Jewish music
The modern musicians/educators of our time often call the same scale "Spanish Scale", "Spanish Gypsy Scale", "Spanish Phrygian Scale" (see my example 5, 6, 7, and Spanish music & it's influence played a important role in the history of Jazz too, ie. Miles Davis, Chick Corea...)
BTW, it will be even more names if Klezmer/Jewish music was included, the same note-structrue is called Freygish Scale or Ahava Raba Scale!! (If we go deeper to Slavic music it will be more, and don't forget in Arabic music the music system is different than what we learnt in contemporary music schools - which mostly European music system )
it was not used in Dominant chord but more on kinda Tonic Chord, or so to speak, the musical system is different than Western/European but somehow influenced each other, especially in POP music world or Movie/Drama score scene, it's another topic, but all I try to say is THE SCALE might got the most names, and it depends on where you use it.
Last but not the least, I think learning from the Jazz greats is very important, those great improvisers always have a lot to teach us, so if you really transcribed John Coltrane's improvised solo on "Moment's Notice" (See the lower part of my sheet), actually he used ALL, different answers, different solutions, all by John Coltrane, but those phrases all "resolve" to the Cm7 beautifully.
I think we just need to learn & practice all those, don't limit yourself into just the "model answer" or you thought it's "Jazz Theory", which somehow make things complicated, just like understanding HMP5↓ ^^
The links below are actually clear enough, once again thanks to Mr. Ryota Ueda who help us all figure out the "Mystery of HMP5↓ Scale" and understand Japanese manner!
HMP5↓音階到底是什麼？啟彬老師對這個最多名字的音階的最詳實解釋
G HMP5↓音階意指G-Ab-B-C-D-Eb-F-G（1-b2-3-4-5-b6-b7-1，如果1是G的話），而它是C和聲小音階（C-D-Eb-F-G-Ab-B-C）從五音開始，但是因為四度上就是五度下、五度上就是四度下，所以這個簡寫會讓很多人會困惑，到底是五度下還是四度上？到底是往下的箭頭還是往上的箭頭？到底根音是哪一個？照字面邏輯來說不是應該寫成C HMP5↑音階呢？如果意思是指C和聲小調從五音開始的話？（這個音階常見於或用在G7b9b13和絃上，一般來說會解決到Cm和絃）
這很詭異，當三十幾年前我們剛開始接觸爵士樂的時候，有一本由日本人坂元輝所寫的爵士鋼琴教材，在台北流通著，他的書到現在還找得到繁體中文版，在學習的過程中我們常笑稱這個音階名字是什麼鬼？甚至叫它“漢堡王”音階！
因此，我的解讀是，這個音階應該被稱之為和聲小音階從五音開始（或是和聲小音階的第五個調式），而不是如字面符號上讓人以為是：往下完全五度會有一個和聲小音階，尤其那個往下的箭頭很惱人 - HMP5↓?????? 不僅在通用英文的國家令人看不懂，在中文通行的地區也是令人困惑，這到底是什麼文法？
根據我的日本爵士鋼琴家好友植田良太所述，這是個很日本的語氣與語法，讓他們也很倒彈：
HMP5↓音階的意思是：「這個音階呢，就來自於在它的往下完全五度的和聲小音階」
非常間接，是吧？很典型的日本禮儀，其實如果我們以爵士經典曲《Caravan》為例，就不難理解這聲音，我們也可以在蕭邦的音樂中發現許多範例，就是屬和絃解決到小和絃的常聽見聲響
位於美國波士頓的柏克利音樂學院，在其教學系統中將這個音階稱為Mixolydian b9b13音階，這沒問題，不過即興或作曲時你仍要自己找出好的旋律，千萬不要只是把音階上下跑就以為OK了，這是所謂Chord-Scale理論的副作用
有些老師會稱之為Mixolydian b2b6音階，這也沒問題，簡單邏輯就是屬和絃對應Mixolydian音階（請不要用中國大陸的翻譯“混合利地安音階”...你會更混亂），而不同的屬和絃就有不同的Mixolydian音階變化；有些老師會覺得b2音跟b6音有種Phrygian的味道（Phrygian調式音階是1-b2-b3-4-5-b6-b7-1），就稱「1-b2-3-4-5-b6-b7-1」為Phrygian Dominant音階。對我來說，只要你知道用在哪裡，名稱只是為了方便記，不是太重要，只要知道來源就好
而荒謬的事就發生在爵士初學者經常會因為如此，以為爵士樂就是要背很多很多的音階跟名稱，但真相不是這樣！
另外一個很重要的切入點，是除了古典與爵士外，我也有演奏與教授拉丁音樂與世界音樂的履歷，如果你熟悉非洲古巴樂或佛朗明哥音樂，或是西班牙音樂、吉普賽音樂，甚至猶太民族的克萊茲默（Klezmer）音樂的話，這個音階在這些音樂中又是另外的用法，不同的位置
當代的音樂家或教育者，經常會稱今天討論的這個音階為Spanish音階、Spanish Gypsy音階、Spanish Phrygian音階等等，可看我的譜例5、6、7即可了解（甚至中間有浮動的滑音轉音變化），不要忘記西班牙音樂與上述音樂，都深深影響了爵士樂的發展，譬如Miles Davis、Chick Corea等人都是偏愛使用者
順帶一提，如果你真的要名稱的話，如果你連猶太克萊茲默音樂都要納入討論的話，同樣的音階，在Klezmer音樂裡頭叫「Freygish」音階或「Ahava Raba」音階！甚至到了斯拉夫音樂時還有更多，也別忘了在阿拉伯音樂的音樂系統裡頭，音律跟我們在現代音樂學校裡頭學的大大不同，學校教我們的“只”是歐洲的音樂系統
換言之這個音階在“世界音樂”裏頭不是用在屬和絃上，而是基本上的主和絃上，而我們也知道，自古以來音樂的交會融合是從未停歇過的，但不能斷章取義，特別在流行音樂的領域或是影視戲劇配樂的領域中（譬如K-POP或好萊塢電影配樂常強調的情境與韻味），但那是另一個主題了
而我主要想表達的是這個音階或許是有最多名字的音階，但是那取決於你用在哪裡，再進而討論，別直接等同你原來的理解（跟華人常遇到五聲音階就以為是我們熟悉的那種，但其實還有很多不同用法與轉折的方式）
最後回到爵士樂中，我覺得向爵士樂大師學習是很重要的，那些偉大的即興者永遠都有很多可以教我們的，所以舉個例來說，如果你採譜了John Coltrane在《Moment's Notice》一曲中的即興（詳見譜例下半部），事實上他全都用上了，怎麼說呢？不同的答案、不同的解方，都來自同一位John Coltrane，有和聲小音階、有旋律小音階、有自然小音階，但是這幾段同樣段落的即興線條，都很漂亮地解決到Cm7和絃不是嗎？
我想我們需要學習與練習全部那些，別把你自己限制在“標準答案”中，或你以為那是爵士樂理的“規定”，有時候簡單的事複雜說，反而讓事情變複雜了，就好像搞懂HMP5↓漢堡王音階一樣啊！呵呵
文後附上四篇相關的延伸閱讀文章，也再次感謝植田良太老師的協助，來幫我們理解那個很婉轉、很間接甚至很有禮貌的HMP5↓音階之謎，也理解了日文獨特的語法在產生對西方音樂理解時，所造成的獨特命名與簡寫方式！
延伸閱讀：