Tag: Harmony

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

Modes of major scale pt1

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Modes are a simple subject that sometimes can be misunderstood. Modes are ‘inversions’ of a scale, a scale ‘within’ a scale that takes life of its own.

In this first series of videos about modes I show you the modes from the major scale: these are just 7 other scales, built with the same notes from the major scale, only starting from a different degree of that major scale. As an example these are the modes of the C major scale:

C Ionian

C D E F G A B

D Dorian

D E F G A B C

E Phrygian

E F G A B C D

F Lydian

F G A B C D E

G Mixolydian

G A B C D E F

A Aeolian

A B C D E F G

B Locrian

B C D E F G A

You can Check out and Print This PDF File for All the modes nicely notated: Modes of the Major Scale

I am sure you have noticed by now that, as I was saying, all these modes share the same notes, but from a different starting point. This makes them ‘sound’ different when isolated and played as a ‘key’ of their own, as the center of gravity is now shifted. I will show you in the next two videos a couple of different approaches to get to grips with these modes.

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

Connecting 7th arpeggios with scales

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This is a great exercise that not only will improve your articulation, but will better your understanding of 7th arpeggios and how to connect them in a musical manner. Watch the video and download the file, it is pretty much self explanatory. After you have learnt the exercise, there are two things you can do to take it to the next level: 1. transpose in all keys. 2. use a metronome to gradually increase the speed (like in the video).

Good luck!

Printable PDF: Connecting 7th arpeggios

Posted in The Jazzy stuff (but good for every style!)

Interval Color for Soloing

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One of the ways to fight ‘patterns’ playing is to explore all the intervals you can find in a scale. It is a really easy concept you can apply to ANY scale. This is also a great exercise for your chops. Try to practice more with your ears than your fingers…enough said. If applied to soloing every interval has a specific ‘color’ or ‘sound’. Many styles are based around that color, just watch the video and you will understand.

Printable PDF: Scale in Intervals

Posted in The Blues

More Advanced Blues stuff (the Miles/Robben thing)

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Advanced pentatonic stuff.

There are when times you can get bored of playing just the pentatonic on a blues, or maybe you’ve heard more contemporary blues players like Robben Ford, or blues influenced jazz guys like John Scofield and Scott Henderson. Well, here I come to help you out with a couple of tips: first I go over the ‘blues scale’, still quite a basic concept. Just add the b5 to a minor pentatonic and there you go, you have the ‘blues scale’.

A much more interesting thing happens when you start mixing up the H-W Diminished scale with a minor or major pentatonic scale. This will give you a few nice tensions:

Half step – Whole step Diminished scale in C:

C  Db  Eb  Fb  Gb  G  A   Bb
T  b2   b3  3    b5  5 13  b7

C minor pentatonic:

C  Eb  F  G  Bb
T  b3  4  5  b7

C major Pentatonic:

C  D  E  G  A
T  2   3  5  6

Well, mix and match tastefully and you’ll get some new flavors, guaranteed. Listen to some of the examples I play in the video. Good luck!