Twelve is the dread number.
Twelve major scales. Twelve natural minor scales. Twelve melodic minor scales. Twelve harmonic minor scales. Twelve pentatonic, twelve blues, twelve…aaaaaiiiiieeeee!!!
Scales, scales, and more scales. Is there no end to practicing scales?
No.
But, trust me, there is a way to nudge your attitude toward scale practice from drudgery to enjoyment and even inspiration. It begins with understanding how scales apply to your goal of becoming a good jazz improviser.
I wish someone had helped me to understand this better back in my college music days. Maybe my fire would have gotten lit a bit sooner. Or maybe not; admittedly, I was a slacker. Still, if I had understood how those boring, linear progressions of tones became the stuff not only of Bach and Brahms, but also of Bud and Bird, it would have answered a few questions, shortened my learning curve, and helped me to understand not only why to practice scales, but also how.
Here are a few things I wish I had known:
◊ Practicing scales does not just mean playing them straight up and straight down. How often do you actually hear an entire scale played that way in jazz–all the way up for two or three octaves, and then all the way back down? Depending on a player’s approach, what you normally hear in actual jazz solos consists largely of fragments of scales, digital patterns, arpeggios, and the occasional longer, scalar line.
◊ Scale practice includes digital exercises and arpeggios. Once you start adding these, you begin to hear stuff emerging in your practice that sounds like actual building blocks of jazz. Triads and seventh chords rooted on the degrees of the major scale, for instance, are as relevant and functional as you can get, particularly when you start convoluting them in different ways. The following is a sequence of triads in the key of C major; consider each group of four notes to be barred eighth notes: C-E-G-C, D-F-A-D, E-G-B-E, F-A-C-F, G-B-D-G, A-C-E-A, B-D-F-B, C-E-G-C. Get that under your fingers, then try varying the note order thus: C-G-E-C, D-A-F-D, E-B-G-E, F-C-A-F, etc. Figure out other variations.
◊ Interval studies are a great way to get inside a scale. Don’t just practice intervals–think about how they apply. For example, a sequence of sixths has a wonderful way of adding sweetness to a passage. Here’s a cool little application, provided you know some rudimentary piano: first, sound a CM7 on the piano with your left hand. Now, with your right hand, play the following sequence of sixths against the chord: B-G, A-F, G-E, F-D, E-C (hold out the final C). Sounds nice, eh? Note that the first couplet of notes, B and G, are consonant tones, the seventh and fifth of the chord respectively. The next couplet are dual passing tones, and the next consists of two more chord tones, G and E, the fifth and third. Following is another couplet of passing tones, followed by two more chord tones, E and C, the latter being the root of the chord. My point, besides giving you a nice lick: don’t just exercise your fingers–exercise your brain and your ears along with them. THINK about how the material you are practicing applies to various musical situations–to altered dominants, ii-V7-I’s, and so forth.
I’ve by no means exhausted the topic of practicing scales with a jazz purpose in mind, but this is enough to give you the idea and get you started at working things out for yourself.
Be diligent, have fun, and keep blowing!
