Lesson One

Jazzing Up Your Major Scales

Practicing scales is an essential part of any musician's practice regimen. What to do with these scales once you've learned them can often be a huge hurdle. You need to know your scales from "root to root" first, ascending and descending, then it's up to you to "mix up the notes" to form coherent melodies while improvising.

The example below shows an approach to a C-major scale which will help you get familiar with the interval skips, and chromatic approach notes so often heard in jazz solos. This will go a long way toward curing the "root to root" syndrome we can sometimes face while learning to improvise. Scales are really only guidelines, it's how you use them, and the embellishments you employ that really make music happen.

 

The "formula" for this approach is as follows:

• Semitone below first scale tone
• First scale tone
• Up a diatonic third
• Down a diatonic second

Repeat the process, for the second scale tone:

• Semitone below second scale tone
• Second scale tone
• Up a diatonic third
• Down a diatonic second

Apply this formula to the entire scale for what should prove to be a very helpful pattern full of twists and turns. Practice this in all keys. Jamey Aebersold's Major And Minor play-a-long CD is ideal for this type of woodshedding. Hear how it sounds in a real musical situation!

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