C-E-F#-G-B what is it called?

[Melkor]

I call that Lydian Pentatonic, and when played as a scale over a IV chord, it sounds a little "Japanese" or "Vai".
I've seen some references on exotic scales refer to this as a "westernised" Japanese scale, but ive seen quite a few other japanese scales too with very different formulas.

Played over a I-II loop (Cmaj-Dmaj) .... it sounds pretty lush and dreamy.

I think the old All Saints song "Pure Shores" was based around this tonality.

[codec_spurt]

Hi guys,

This is one of my most favorite chords, I learned it years ago by coincidence, it is cool when play pads using two hands, anyhow, I wanted to know what it's name?!
Notes are: C, E, F#, G, B

Bit tricky to play on guitar that one without an 'inversion' - I would say
this would be the easiest one:
http://jguitar.com/chordname?string5=2& ... els=letter

JGuitar says it is a 'C Major Sharp 11th', in it's Chord Namer.
And sure enough it is in their Chord Dictionary:
http://jguitar.com/chordsearch/CM%2311/ ... rps/letter

It also tells us that these scales sound good with this chord:
G Ionian
A Dorian
B Phrygian
C Lydian
D Mixolydian
E Aeolian
F# Locrian
G Bebop Major
D Bebop Minor
A Bebop Minor
D Bebop Dominant
G Bebop Dominant
B Neapolitan Minor
F# Eight-tone Spanish

http://jguitar.com/harmonizer/chord2sca ... els=letter


I really like http://jguitar.com/
It even allows you to re-tune and 're-string' your instrument.
i.e. when I want to know a scale on my 5-String Bass and am
feeling a bit dis-orientated after playing guitar for a while.

Anyway, if you picked that C Lydian scale you mentioned it would look
like this:
http://jguitar.com/scale?root=C&scale=L ... tes=sharps

I set it to start on the 'Root' of the scale C, in this case the 8th fret,
obviously. But you can change the starting position to get all your
different 'shapes' up and down the neck.

JGuitar is the best resource that I have come across when it comes to chords
and scales. And it's free. If anyone has found anything better, I'd be
interested to see it. That http://www.gootar.com/guitar/ didn't work
in my Opera browser. It looks really good though.

Still, from what I can see JGuitar does all that and more.
And the Harmonizer between scales and chords and vice versa is just
brilliant. It's had me brushing up on my 'Mohammedan' and got me
into further studying Arabic maqāms.


cheers.

[jancivil]

I call that Lydian Pentatonic...

Played over a I-II loop (Cmaj-Dmaj) .... it sounds pretty lush and dreamy.

Yes. You could get a lot of mileage out of that change; in fact it can be kind of Escheresque in that one moment C is center and it's 'lydian', then D feels central and it's like 'mixolydian'.

Just a small niggly point on 'name that chord': if the F# is in the same octave as the other tones, "#11" is a bit misleading to whomever has to read a chart with that designation. It's a fourth. Vertically, C E G B F# gives you CM7+11; C E F# G B has a different (vibration and) effect, and it's better to call it along the lines of "add #4".