You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 4 Ways to Use Pentatonic Scales (And How to Practice Them)

Episode Date: November 27, 2019

Up your pentatonic game by using the advice Peter and Adam lay on you in this episode.Peter and Adam have a whole course about pentatonics - Jazz Piano Technique Vol. 1: Pentatonics. This is a 4-week bootcamp that will allow you to unlock your pentatonic potential by working on your speed, power, dexterity, and control. For more information, go to https://www.openstudiojazz.com/jazz-piano-techniquePeter also did a (highly controversial) 2 Minute Jazz on practicing pentatonics. Watch it here: https://youtu.be/T-gX7JStQ6cThis episode of You'll Hear It is sponsored by Anytune. If you want to improve your jazz playing and transcription skills, Anytune is the #1 tool you need. Just load any track you want into the app, and Anytune allows you to change the speed, loop sections, change the pitch to a different key, and so much more. For more information, go to https://anytune.us/youllhearit/Want every Open Studio course for free? That's right - over 300 hours and 1200 lessons can be yours with free lifetime access! All you have to do is enter Open Studio's 2019 Holiday Giveaway. Go to https://learn.openstudiojazz.com/giveaway/, or watch this video of Peter for more info: https://youtu.be/KsdhVXE5ovILike those You'll Hear It shirts Peter shows off on the podcast? Want some YHI swag of your own? Take a visit to our store! Just go to https://teespring.com/stores/open-studioLet us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Adam. Yeah. You've been watching the impeachment? I have. Really? Yeah, I had the morning off. How's it going? It's dicey.

Not going great. I'm Adam Anus. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Coming at you. Today's episode is sponsored by AnyTune. A music player built for musicians.

Music practice, perfected, learn, transcribe practice. AnyTune is a professional tool to help serious musicians learn to transcribe music by ear, faster and easier, a serious app for serious musicians that helps bring more joy to the grind of becoming a great jazz musician. Absolutely. Any tune is loaded with features. You can use any tune as your music player and occasionally slow down a couple of measures or use it to create set lists containing custom arrangements with timed annotations and perform live with the aid of a remote control foot pedal. So remember last week when first of all, I was super excited and the response so far has been great, which we're so excited because this will truly take your, you know,

you're learning and all the things we talk about transcribing and shedding. It's our perfect sponsor. Yeah, yeah, exactly. But remember we were talking about there's got all these features, but you can sort of slowly dig into them because just the one, the ability to slow down and do it so elegantly and easily. Just, I mean, that's more than worth its price just for that to be. I mean, there's other tools that can do it, but this is the easiest most elegant way, load your music right there. But it's not just that.

It's the ability to set bookmarks and markers throughout the track. It's ability to isolate the instruments or take an instrument out. It's really such a useful tool. Yeah, and because it's such a well-designed piece of software, I mean, technologically, it's great, but a lot of people have figured out how to do this, but it's so well-designed. It gives you the ability to kind of go step-by-step

and learn it as you go so you don't have to just be studying the app. You're studying music from as soon as you use it, which is what it's about. Yeah, that's the beauty of a great UI, isn't it? Yeah. that you don't feel like you have to learn. You know, like, so we use, and I'm going to call some people out here, but you do it, something like Sibelius. Ooh, not our sponsor.

Not our sponsor, and definitely won't be after this episode. Because the UI is terrible, and it's hard to use, and it's just the worst to figure out, very simple commands. Yeah. But any tune is the exact opposite of that. It is, right. It is so intuitive and so great to use and just makes your practice go better. There's no better way to say it.

that it just makes practicing easier, more enjoyable, and more productive. Yeah, I mean, just from what I know already, and I still haven't gone through all the features, but just the things that I've used, I feel like it can easily, you know, optimize your practice 10 to 20% just in terms of time. I mean, it's that powerful. Totally agree. I totally agree. You know what I mean?

And I think that the deeper you go with it, the more custom it could even be more. So it's really exciting and revolutionary. And I remember back, you know, 10, 15 years ago when people first were playing with technology like this, And I was like, oh, I wish we'd have this before. But the interfaces were so clunky. I never really got that into them, you know? Yeah. A couple of apps and programs.

AnyTune's way better. Yeah, yeah. So now is kind of the time. Anytune. U.S. slash you'll hear it to find out more about it. That's right. All right.

So what are we talking about today? Today, we got the key station out, but I'm not even going near it, man. We're going to Kranick and Bach this one. Oh, we're going to go to old school. Yeah, I'm going to lean my mic over to the Kranick and box. We're probably going to, like, pull a muscle as we turn in that direction. We're going to risk it. Coming in 2020, new, I don't know if you know about this, new you'll hear at Studio.

We need it. Yeah, we need it. It's time. And the Kranick and Bach might be donated to a junkyard. We'd have to pay someone to pick it up. It's so heavy. Andrew. Today, we're talking about four ways to use pentatonic scales and how to practice them.

And why are we talking about pentatine? Why is this so topical? We've had a couple of different pentatonic moments, we'll say, in the past few weeks. So first we released our jazz piano technique course, pentatonics. Volume one. popular course. I don't know if you knew about this, but it's really popped off. It's really you and I practicing with our

students, so you could practice with us all these different ways to practice pentatonic scales. I believe we went through all keys, too. Almost all. That's right. We were only going to do one or two, and then we pushed it, and then it got, it was kind of slippery slope, but we went pretty deep. I think we went further than most people are going to be able to go this year. Yeah, check that. Andrew put a link to the JPT, the jazz piano technique course. We have fingering and all about

stuff. Anyway, but that was a popular and we got a lot of questions about that. And then you made a two-minute jazz video. Right. Similar topic on pentatonic and how to use them. And so I thought we would kind of break down really four specific ways. Yeah, and actually, let's link to that too, because that was kind of surprisingly controversial

and popular that YouTube video. We'll link to that below, Two-Minute Jazz. And that actually came directly out of a jazz piano method lesson that I did for our advanced students, you know, on the weekly series, that was sort of the beginning of the deep dive. So, I mean, I think we've covered, well, it's funny because people are looking at us as experts on pentatonic scales, but then others are questioning whether we even know what a penitonic scale is. Isn't that great? Maybe a little self-conscious, a little self-conscious.

That's great. The internet is fantastic. Yeah, exactly. So maybe we should start there. What is a pentatonic scale, Adam? Well, a pentatonic scale, as I know it, is a five-note scale, hence pent. Now, I think about these from a major perspective. So if I'm thinking of a C-Pentatonic, I'm actually thinking C-D-E-G-A, right?

That is commonly called the major pentatonic scale, if I'm not incorrect. Also called the major pentatonic. That's the way I think of it. Now, I know you think of, if someone says C-Pentatonic, you're thinking of what I would consider the minor penitonic, which is C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat. I would consider that like the E-flat, major pentatonic, the relative minor pentatonic, would be C. Right. But they're both correct in a way.

For this purpose is, when I say C pentatonic on this episode, we'll talk about the minor pentatonic. Right. I'll defer to your normal nature. Well, no, no, it's not a big deal because like we've talked about this before. I'm usually thinking about, and I think you do this too, I've noticed when we say we think about it and then we start naming things. We're actually talking about how we're hearing it.

Yeah, I think so. And so the idea of like the difference between the so-called, don't sue us. Major and minor pentatonic being a different shape obviously the minor and major third

but also six as opposed to seventh right? Although this technically that's a major pentatonic scale

not to muddy the waters because it's five notes right one two you just gave me a big look one two three four five that's a pentatonic scale

blow blowing my mind well no I'm saying this because people are like well this you can have a lot of pentatonic skills. It just meets five. But as you said, for our purposes, we're talking about, and I think it's easier to hear it in relation to that, that's part of the reason I always think about the relative amount,

you know, so that's E flat, sloppily played, thank you. And that's the C minor, because it's the relative major and minor. The shape stays the same. It's diatonically the same, right? Yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's the same notes. It's just where you start them. Right. So for the purpose of this episode, when we say C pentatonic, we're talking about the minor version.

and the... Yeah. Right? Or also called E-flat. One quick question. Is that related to the demonic pentagrams from the 1980s? And in a way. It is, yeah.

In the way it is. So, pentatonics are used all the time in all different kinds of music. It's one of the most basic scales that there is across the globe, and it's no different in the way we might use it in jazz. And there are some common ways that you can apply a pentatonic scale over different chord changes. And that's what I really wanted to focus on today. So we've established that the C-Penatonic scale, is this sort of minor sound, right?

You have the root, the minor third, the fourth, the fifth, and then the dominant seven, the flat seven. It's very also close to the blues scale. Right? It's just that chromatic step between the fourth and the fifth, and that's the only difference as we know it. So the first application of this is that C pentatonic over a C minor seven, like a Dorian sound, right?

So that sound, go ahead and play that pentatonic. Oops, sorry, slipped off. That's number one. That's like level one. You hear high school kids playing this poorly. Well, level one would actually just be going up and down, not all the hip stuff I just did. Right.

Well, no, we'll get there. Because we have in how to practice them too, right? So how do we practice these pentatonic scales? Now, in our technique course, you came up with this brilliant idea, if I do say so yourself, where we, when we're practicing as a scale, we practice going up. diatonically. And then when we come down, we practice different patterns.

I think the first one you have is... Yeah. Like, so just... Again, using all the notes from the pentatonic scale, but just going up and then skipping and going up and skipping. Up one, down two. Up one down, too. Very common pattern.

And you hear this all the time. So if I were to practice this, just like we do in the technique course, it would be... Right? That's one way you... can practice. And we'll, as we go over here, we'll introduce other ways to practice. But let's do, let's move on the number two, related to number one. Yes. So this is C-penetonic, C minor pentatonic, same scale over an F-7, an F-dominant-sound.

Exactly. So this is related because you hear this sound, you know, whether you're playing like passion dance, you know, or some kind of modal dominant chord sound, this is an option for you on a dominant chord. Like, you wouldn't play this on an... I mean, you would play this on an F blues in certain situations, for sure. Because it has that E-flat triad. It's got that suss.

Yeah. It has that Suss 7 sound, you know. It's a great option for a dominant seven chord, especially if the dominant seven chord is acting like a tonic, right? If you're in a modal situation. Yeah. Like if you're doing a 2-5 and B-flat,

it doesn't sound terrible at all, but it doesn't lend the tension that you might want to the tonic chord. Right. Right. Well, and I think that, you know, whenever we get in these situations and we're talking about how you practice them and then the actual usage, yeah, that should lead from one to the other. But as much as getting the fingerings and understanding the notes and getting them in different keys, of course, we're going to probably just talk about them and see it looks like here today. But that's, oh, no, we're going to get some other ones. So, but, you know, the idea that, you know, can you identify within that as you're practicing just that scale, where the tension is,

and where you can release it, you know, later on. Right. Because you're not going to just be running up and down. We are for the demonstration. So it's kind of like the same thing, like with the blues. Like what is the difference? It's one note. Okay, the theory of understanding that is relatively simple and should be understood,

but more important is hearing that. And like, what does that do? How does that add tension? Because you're training your ear. When we talk about ear training, sometimes I think people get lost. And what they really think it is is theoretical training. Yeah. And that's just one part of it.

When you're training your ear, you're trying to train your ear to identify patterns and hear what they are. Right. So that you can, in terms of for improvisation, and this is why ear training is so much more important, I think, for jazz than some other forms, because we have to be able to create that kind of harmonic, you know, harmonic, you know, translated to melodic vocabulary on the fly at any time. Yeah.

And so when we talk about you'll hear it. This is not just a podcast title. This is a mantra for life, big guy. That's right. That's right. So even as you're doing things that seem like they're of a technical nature, you're really training your ear. So you want to listen for those tensions and stuff. And certainly when we're putting the C minor pentatonic over the F7,

that biggest one is between that E flat triad, if you think about that B flat going to F wanting to resolve down there. So how do we, what's another way we could practice this pentatonic scale, the C minor over F? One way that we didn't talk about in the technique course, but I really like is skipping a note each time, like basically doing triads skipping a note. Yes.

It's like moving up. in diatonic force. Because these shapes are super handy. Yes. And you're going to get some force, the triads. You'll get some triads, you'll get some force. So understanding like, and I'm

not just moving up in force, like you said, we're moving up in the scale diatonic. Hey buddy, don't play too fast. They're going to flame you in YouTube, man. I've been the recipient. Yeah, so if I'm starting on C, like I'm skipping the E flat, I'm going C, F, then I'm skipping the G and B flat. And then I just move that up the diatonic scale.

Yeah. And because of the nature, as opposed to an octatonic scale, you get much more varied shapes as you move diatonically through the pentatomics. That's exactly right. And you can do any shape like that. That's what's so great. You can like skip one and then skip two. And you know what I mean? It gets you all different kinds of cool clusters and stuff like that. Just another idea to practice. And hey, listen, when we when we say like practice it this way, we really just like are constantly thinking up of new ways to practice this stuff anyway. It's not like everybody practices it this same way. Like the whole point of getting your own sound is finding your own sort of patterns and exercises and ways to think about things so that you can achieve a personal sound. Right, right. And there's always that connection between, you know, application in an improvisational setting and practicing, you know, the technical practice to get something into your hands as a pianist or any instrument. Yeah. As a vocalist, you know, there's the technical command. But that's why this ear training is, it should be a part of all. of your practice. Don't be like, I'm going to practice ear training

and quiz myself for 10 minutes, and then I'm going to move on. No, ear training is the thing that holds it all together, and that just means listen. Yeah, yeah. And that's why we always like, number one, listen is because that's the bridge that will actually make your application hip. Otherwise, you're just going to be running up and down the stuff the way we show you, which is fine, but that's not

really... Make it your own. Make it your own. Exactly. All right, so number three is we have a G major pentatonic. Whoa. Over a C major 7, or C major 9. So, you know, when we have a C major 9 chord, let me just forget one note there Oh, I sure.

That's right. And these are really note choices that you can have. That was a noteworthy choice you made there. Noteworthy choices. And we're even going to go next level on the next one. But you could just go on a C major chord like a C major, but that's a little square. Yeah, very square.

Right? It's kind of an older sound. But you hear cats with a Z running these pentatonic scales based off the fifth, you know. A little mint. again, you can practice these by going up. So I'm going up a G major pentatonic, G-A-B-D-E.

Yeah. Over C. One, two, three, five, six. This time maybe come down. I liked your way from the technique course, down up. That's a nice one. Right? You're going skipping one down and then going up and skipping one and coming down.

Yeah. Good stuff. I like it. So that's G major. And do you ever think about it like one, two, three, five, six? That major pentatonic? Like the interval, I mean the scale tones? Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I do. Now that I've implanted that in your head, you will. Because I wouldn't think about it like one, two, three, four, five. Right. You know, I would think about it in relation to the major scale because that's just been what's drilled in me. Yeah, me too. I mean, and it always connects with the ear when I start thinking about going into other keys, the shapes.

Exactly. And then what it sounds like, you know. Because, yeah, because to me, like, this shape, that to me is like, oh, that's based off the sixth of G. Right. That's a minor sound to me. Right. And then it becomes relative. Okay, so our last one is related to what we just did, but this is to get an even more dissonant sound.

It's really an airy sound. You might say that some composers might use this Lydian sound if we were to borrow from a... Like as in every film composer ever? A friend of the podcast. But this is the D major pentatonic, again, over a C major 7 with a sharp 11, because the D major pentatonic is D-E-F-sharp, which is not in C, A, B. this is great for like a modern especially like even if you wanted to do like a a flat five sound right more of like that kind of thing

very nice sounds great again you could practice this by going up and one of the patterns we use was just coming up to the ninth right you can go up to the ninth and come down that kind of coming down in groups of four is very common especially in pianists because we have these because we have four fingers oh no we have five four fingers and a thumb yeah that's right

That's right. Good. So those are kind of four basic ways to use pentatonic scales and four different ways you can practice them. Check out Peter's Two Minute Jazz. Link below, all about pentatonic. Check out our chorus jazz piano technique. Pentatonics where we practice penitonics just like this.

And yeah. That's good. Yeah. And actually, I think those, at least the first way we were talking about over the C-Petonic, C-minor, Pettonic, over C-minor, on the YouTube video. You see a link in there. You can look at the...

We added fingerings because people really ask. about that. So I did more... People want the fingering. Yeah, I never learned pentatonic skills with fingerings. That's okay. I mean neither. You know, I'm an OG. O-G. O' guy. But that's cool. But we got them in there so you can check that out and download that. What else we got? I think we nailed this pentatonic thing, man. We did nail it. It still feels fresh to me, though. The pentatonic sound is such an optimistic sound. Like fresh is like a pumpkin pie and turkey.

Ooh, that's coming up. That's coming up tomorrow. So we're going to be here broadcasters. We're dedicated. Yes. We're going to be here. For our listeners outside of the U.S., tomorrow is Thanksgiving, which is a big national holiday. Right. We have a bunch of family. You got family coming in time? What are you doing? What should we talk about it tomorrow?

We could talk about it tomorrow. Okay. After we're fat with a toe... I can't even say what I was going to say. Tofurkey. Toe furkey, yeah. Looking forward to some toe furkey. Yeah, so look, it's time for holidays, but a lot of folks have time off.

And so, you know, if you have a chance... First of all, we like to invite you to the giveaway. We've been talking about a little bit, but probably not enough. considering how big it is, over $10,000. If you go to, we're not giving it in cash, but we're giving invaluable Open Studio Jazz information and courses and inspiration. You're getting everything ever. Yeah.

Which is a lot. Even now, but into the future, too. Yeah, it's a very valuable gift. Yeah, we can't even really put a dollar figure on because we don't know what it's going to be. And first prize, you get everything ever and you also get a Skype lesson. Yes. Possible. Now that we can put a value on, $5.

But the rest, priceless. With either Peter or me, I would go with Peter. No, yeah, you can do either one of us or both. We could do it like we do the thing. Sure, sure, sure. But so if you go to OpenSidiojazz.com, scroll down, you'll see a big link there to sign up. And we have a bunch of different ways you can sign up.

It's very easy. The way we recommend for you'll hear it listeners, actually, is to leave us a rating review and you get like 2,000 or 4,000 entries or something crazy. That's the way you can get an entry to the sweepstakes, yeah. Or the giveaway. The giveaway. It's not a sweepstakes. Sorry.

Sorry. Hey, what do you know about the piano access pass? Piano Access Pass has just dropped, and it is very exciting because this is an instance of us listening to our members, and some folks were a little bit confused. Yeah. Well, you know what it was? We always felt like the more we give you the better, but I totally get it. It's like you need a little bit of focus. So we have a lot of piano fans. We have a lot of piano members. And so we put together for the first time ever a piano access pass, a membership ongoing situation where you can get access to just.

the piano courses. Yeah, all the piano courses we've already produced, which are substantial and any course we would produce in the next years to come. I mean, it really covers you cradle to the grave, I would say, like novice to advanced, you know. I should say so. Yeah, already it covers, and yeah, like you say, the new stuff coming. We've already got two great Jeff Keiser courses on there,

and a very exciting arranging course coming. We have the brand new Brazilian jazz piano from Elio Alvesse is available, and then our very, like the cool thing about this, and I think why folks are going to be interested and we're asking for it is that, you know, you've got the beginner courses as part of it. So even if you're an advanced player,

but you feel like, oh, I want to go brush up on some beginner stuff. You've got access to the comprehensive jazz piano for beginners where you can really go to those foundational skills, jumpstart, jazz piano, jazz piano jumpstart, I should say, and all that. I mean, even LeBron is practicing free throws. You know what I'm saying? You got to go back to the fundamentals. Exactly.

Loving the fundamentals. Okay, so we've got that. And then tomorrow, well, you know what? Should we go ahead and do this today? Do it. we are like, have you ever said, what if I was like, should we go jump off the cliff? Let's go. You go first.

I'll follow. No, so we wanted to do something special for our you'll hear a listener. So thank you for staying and listening to the end. And first of all, like we said, join us tomorrow. We have a very exciting episode coming up tomorrow as well. But, you know, we're going to be doing some really big promotions beyond just the giveaway at Open Studio Jazz. And we know a lot of you're interested in coming on for maybe the piano access pass or something. Come get it.

So we're going to do some really good deals, but we're doing something special just for our you'll here at listeners. You don't need to share this with anyone. I mean, you can't. We can't stop you, but we're going to do a very special coupon code that's going to take a big discount. We're not even going to tell you how much it is, but it's going to be bigger than everybody else is getting. And we're doing a big one for everybody. So,

should we give the code today or make them come back tomorrow? Let's make them. Not makeup. Yeah, I guess it is makeup. I mean, listen in to the you've got nothing to do. What, are you going to clean your house a little bit in the morning? You know, you've got people coming over. Yeah. You know what? We're going to give them a hint. Let's give them. Yeah, we're going to tell them

tomorrow at the very beginning of the episode or no Dan so they'll listen but we're gonna I'm gonna give let's give him a hint okay if you guys ever heard it say number one what happens after one of us says number one that's the coupon code for the biggest discount the special you'll hear of this

I mean if you can figure it out go get it that's right and until tomorrow you'll hear it