Archives for October 19, 2008

Speaking of Francesca Amari, here”s a review of her new CD on MLive.com. It includes an audio clip of “Good Morning, Heartache,” a call-and-response vocal/sax duet between Francesca and me.

Quick, now: what”s the most universally useful scale in jazz?\r\n\r\nIf you answered the major scale, I beg to differ. The major pentatonic covers more improvising situations than any other scale I can think of. Whether you”re playing blues, jazz, or pop, the pentatonic scale allows even fairly new improvisers to sound reasonably convincing, if not inspired.\r\n\r\nRemove the fourth and seventh degrees of a major scale (F and B in the key of C major) and you”ve got a pentatonic scale. Minus the tone that is likeliest to create harmonic problems, the fourth scale degree, what you”re left with is a nice, vanilla scale that you can play over pretty much any diatonic chord with impunity.\r\n\r\nBeginning improvisers seem to gravitate instinctively to the pentatonic scale. It works equally well with major or relative minor keys. And with its two gaps of a minor third, the scale has a built-in angularity that stands out once you start working in interval sequences and digital patterns. The pentatonic gets really interesting when you use it in “outside” playing. But that”s a separate discussion. For starters, let”s take a quick look at one simple, common application of the pentatonic scale: the blues.\r\n\r\nYou can cover a basic, major blues using two pentatonic scales. For that matter, just one will do, but both are handy and add different colors. Let”s say you”re playing a blues in the key of F major. You can use an F pentatonic (F,G,A,C,D) for the entire twelve bars for a nice, down-home kind of sound. Of course, the blues needs a bit of grit and soul to it, so at some point, you”re going to want to funkify your approach. That”s when you jump your pentatonic scale up a minor third to Ab (Ab,Bb,C,Eb,F). You”re still playing an F major blues, but you”re using a different set of notes, including one “blues note,” the flat third. By playing Ab against an F major chord, you”re creating a harmonic clash. But it works perfectly in the blues.\r\n\r\nYou can alternate the two pentatonic scales as much as you wish in the blues. You have plenty more options as well, but learn these first, because they”ll help you form a foundation for other, more advanced choices you”ll make as an improviser.\r\n\r\nHere are the pentatonic scales to learn in a few common major blues keys:\r\n\r\nKey of C: C and Eb pentatonic.\r\nKey of F: F and Ab.\r\nKey of Bb: Bb and Db.\r\nKey of Eb: Eb and F#.\r\n\r\nYou can figure out the rest from there; the second scale is always a minor third up from the first scale. Have fun experimenting!