You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - Best of Season 6: Scale Practice - Part 1

Episode Date: May 6, 2020

We know how much you all love episodes about scale practice, so we put together two compilations of the best of these moments from season 6. Tune in next week for part two!Today's episode is sponsored by Anytune. Anytune is the perfect tool for anyone looking to improve their practice sessions. Learn, transcribe, and practice solos by slowing down the tempo, adjusting the pitch, and (for Pro+ users), isolating specific instruments in the mix. For more info, follow this link.On the calendar for Open Studio events today, at 3:00 PM EDT Adam continues his daily Guided Practice Session - this time on YouTube. Then again at 5:00 PM EDT, Adam will host a Q&A (again here on YouTube) all about transcription. To keep up on all the live events from Open Studio, check out this handy calendar - we're adding new events regularly so pop in to see what we've got in the pipeline.In light of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic, we understand that money is tight for a lot of people right now. That's why we've decided that for the duration of this crisis, we'll be running a Choose What You Pay campaign at Open Studio. Choose whichever course you want and then let us know how much you're willing to pay - that's it. For more info, click this link.Interested in more music advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase. And be sure to check out our All Access Pass - every course from Open Studio on every instrument.Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel.Follow us on Facebook | Twitter | Instagram See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Scales are the lip trills for every instrumentalist. Like they're just the meat and potatoes of what we have to do. That's right. So learn to love them. That doesn't mean that you have to play boring old linear scales all the time. No. And in fact, once you're getting to the point, well, I would say that once you have a certain scale that you can play in all keys that is boring, like you know it's so well.

I mean, you know, look, have you mastered it? Who's the say? But you'll start to know once it becomes boring and you're not having to actively think, that's great because that means, you know, if you're, you're, like a pianist, the fingerings, or a trumpet player, the fingers are ingrained, the transitions. But you're also listening for some musicality, so don't just be like, well, I know all my scales.

That's right. I used to have this thing when I had physical IRL students, you know, in real life. Oh, boy. And no, they would come in and I would, the first thing I would always say is, all right, how are you on your scale? Oh, I got on my scales. Say it YMMMV. Yeah, exactly.

Well, the way they were playing these scales were YMMV for sure. Hashtag YMV, Andrew. Exactly, with explanation, which is not needed. Everybody knows it. Yeah, of course. But, you know, the point is they, everybody, was so confident on, oh yeah, I know all my scales. And I was like, oh, wow, this will be great.

So I can just kind of quiz you on a couple. We're not going to do the basics. Since you know them all, we're not even going to mess with that. Let's go to, you know, the altered scale. Give me that in A-flat. And then they'll kind of be like, you know, wait, is it? I mean, I know that.

I learned that, but I'm just, you know, like, you know, I mean, I know them. You don't know. Yeah, exactly. If you know it, you know, I grab you out of band in the middle. Then I play it. Drop down and give me the altered scale. before you've been thinking it just comes out. Catt loves to demand people drop down and give them something.

Well, there are ways that we can lock this in that aren't just running the A-flat altered scale in a linear fashion. Yes. And the ways that we're going to talk about today actually help you understand the notes of the scale in a much deeper way and in a way that is not so, you know, linearly boring as just running it up and down.

And the first way we're going to address this is by using thirds, triads, and seventh chords. These are like breaking up the same. scales in basic symmetrical shapes that come in really, really handy. I mean, these are so fundamental that you should be putting these in your practice routine immediately today for how you practice scales. So what I mean by thirds is if you're practicing in C, that's playing in thirds, right? That's the C major scale, exactly.

Because you hear it and then you see it. That seems super fundamental. But have you done that in, again, like A flat? You know, you start to learn. If you're a pianist, you can play these two as double stops. Yes. But then when you get into things like the half-hole scale, they become super crucial for understanding the relationships of these thirds and how they work together.

And I'm going to throw a little audible in here, if you'll allow me here. Yeah. And that is I'll try to give kind of what we talk about is creative scale practice, which is really next level once you know these techniques and are comfortable with them. Yeah. And perhaps, I mean, you know, like we said, the point of this is it should never get boring. Right. I mean, it's, look, yeah, you're not playing a Beethoven-Sonata or Thelonious Monk,

ballad, but it should be challenging, it should be engaging, and you should be putting these together in new ways. So once the thirds, the broken thirds, and then as you go on and show the triads in seventh, once you've got that and you're like, well, I can do that too. So think about creative ways. How do you change it up? Yeah, you change the direction. Yeah, totally. And then you can add complexity. So let's say we want to do triads, or you call them broken fifths, but again, this is the half-hold diminish scale. those can add such exactly

I think I messed that up I know when I call it broken fist that is wrong I guess because technically broken fist would be like which is good too right that's a good one to practice also good

and then once you get into sort of seventh chords so I'll go back to let's do like a C minor Dorian thing then these shapes become now we're talking about like shapes

that are going to be so crucial to your improvising every single one of these so that when you see a 2-5 and B-flat you know that this like G minor 7 shape is part of,

it's part of that C Dorian sound or that A half diminish shape. Yes. Those seventh chords are all part of that Dorian sound. And this is really, we're getting into the link between, that's so crucial to understand on just a technical level, but also getting into concepts of improvisation between arpeggios and scales. Right. Because some of you might be like, ah, you're practicing arpeggios,

but what's the scale? Right. That's right. And, you know, at each different place, but you're getting that kind of connection that's very organic to the way that we actually improvise with single lines. And then when we were talking about thirds,

you mentioned you can switch up the directions. And once you get to these four notes... Oh, now you got choices. You know, you have so many, like... Yeah. Down up. I mean, there's just like... Yeah, and if somebody annoying is like,

I mastered all those, every one. I was like, okay, well, then change it up every time. Get creative. Right. We're trying to trick our brains into really mastering all possibilities of these things. And it can be eye-opening what you don't know. So today we thought we talked about the blues scale. So there's a lot to talk about with the blues scale.

There is a lot. And the first thing we should probably answer is, what the hell is it? What the hell is the blue scale? Well, there's a little dispute on that. This can be fun. We've got a little controversy. We love bringing the controversy to the YouTube's as it were. There's been some recent blog post by some very famous musicians.

about the blue scale. It's origins, where it came from and what exactly it is. Commonly, it's known as this scale. That's where we've all kind of landed with it in the late 20th century to now, right? That's what we consider.

When musicians talk amongst themselves about what is the blue scale, that's the first thing that comes up. Yeah. Correct, would you agree? One, two, three, four, five, six, no scale. Yeah, so in the key of C, it's C, E, flat, F, F sharp, G, B, flat,

and I think we're back at C. That's the way I learned. Me too. And it's that sound, right? You get that sound. It's the first way that when you're like a middle school musician, you want to sound hip, you learn that blues scale. You just lean into it the whole time.

Not knowing anything about life or phrasing or... Ignorance is bliss, for sure. You've never had the blues once in your life. No, no. And you just lean into that blue note. I play the suburban blues, baby. I like the suburbs, baby. It's one step off from like the classical musician,

embodied. I'm a jazz person. Oh, I'm going to love you like nobody loves you. Yeah. Yeah, but when done right, the blues scale can be such an effective tool. Of course. And it doesn't have to be, it's one of those things that like, it's like rhythm or anything else that it doesn't have to, you don't have to complicate the blue scale. The blue scale just, it exists with its own set of functions and sounds, and it just is a beautiful thing when done right. That's right. You don't have to complicate it.

but let's get into the complexities. I'm ready to try. It's my best. Yeah. Okay, so is it too early in the episode for me to bring out the secret blue scale? No. I love the secret blue scale.

I think this is the first step. A lot of you probably, if you've been Googling the blue scale, you know that first one we talked about them. But there is what we've called the secret blue scale, which is really not a secret. It's not a secret. We've done videos on it before.

So, yeah, it's just adding the major third to the aforementioned blue scale. So we're going, One minor three, major three, is that even legal? Fourth, flatted fifth, fifth, dominant seventh, root. Okay. So may I add one more secret note to this secret scale? Don't get that.

The next note you can add. So you just added that E natural in, which I think is the first note you should add into what everybody considers the blue scale. But I would also argue that between the next note you can add. the B flat and the C, you can add that passing tone. Come on, man. You know what? Let me add a couple notes. All right.

Wait, so you're saying that's the chromatic scale. Okay, so you're saying that that B, you wouldn't lean into that like you could lean into the... I got the blues pay. I don't know. You've changed my mind. That is a fair point. No, I mean, that's a fair point. No, you could put it in, of course.

And we do put it in. But it really, I feel like it doesn't have the quality in terms of leaning in that the major third matter. You know what? I'm going to... You've changed. changed me on this. If you hop along to anything, of course. Look at the way your hips are moving.

Of course it's going to sound like. Yeah, yeah. No, okay, so we won't add that second secret in. But that E natural is a great note to lean on in almost any situation. Maybe not like, because you could use the blues scale. We'll get into this. Where can you use it? You could use it over a dominant chord.

You could use it over a minor seven chord. You could use it over a major seven chord. in the right context. It kind of has that blues connotation. You can use it over just about anything. There's nothing you can't use it over if you are doing it the right way. Well, though, let's get into an area you shouldn't.

Maybe, yeah, you can use it, but let's talk about some areas you shouldn't use it. Okay, go for some scale. So we're doing C blues, and then we go to F7. Should we use an F blues scale? That's a big hell no. Hell no.

Although, you know what, I've been saying, such a big proponent of not doing this. I actually did this the other day, and quite to my delight, it sounded I ate. Okay, so. But it was an exception to the rule. We're going to get into this later, because I have a whole,

I have a whole system for this, but you go ahead with your, yeah, so, we go to the four chord. Am I getting, oh, am I getting ahead of myself? No, no, no. Okay.

So we stay on that C blues. We stay on the C blues go, because it's a really, it's a sound. It's a vibe that's so closely related to the tonic of the blues. And that's really what the blues is about. Like we kind of get so far away from,

from a musical standpoint, you know, from the blue sound over this dominant, and the brilliance of the blues and what it's done to the world of music is about that, it's about a kind of a tonic sound, I mean a dominant sound over the one, over the tonic,

which normally you wouldn't think because it's supposed to lead somewhere. And it does lead somewhere. It does. But we're still on that blues scale. It's both major and minor. It's both the dark and the light. It's an amazing tool.

It's always darkest before dawn, baby. It's incredible. And that's why actually, you know, with your secret note there, that major third, even if you're playing a minor... Yeah. It's bluesy a. Yeah. That's an E-natural over minor chord.

Not just as a passing tone either. No. And it sounds dope. So don't sleep on that secret note of the blues scale. Definitely don't do the B-natural. No, the beat next is fine. Can we talk about some fingering issues that may be pianists? But I don't even think this is a piano issue.

We get asked a lot about piano fingerings for scales and things. And people are dying for the fingering for the blue scale in all 12 keys. But I always come back to, I haven't really sussed this completely out because I'm still evolving on this. But this is not, the blue scale is not a scale to be played in a linear fashion. No, and I think because you've got, even with putting in some of the E or even the B, you've got these big breaks where like thirds are already built into it. So like normally when we're talking about fingering, even of like, you know, like a diminished scale. It's a linear scale. It's all whole steps are half steps.

Yeah. If you play thirds, you break it up. You'd have a different kind of fingering pattern going. But with the blue scale, it starts out there. Yeah, you wouldn't like skip notes. It's already got a shape in it. Blue scale. You wouldn't build chords necessarily off the blues scale. It's my blues

chord, baby! I mean the closest you get is bluesy double stops. Hashtag bluesy double stops. Check out our episode on that. But it's not treated. Like you said, the diminus scale where you can practice in thirds or broken fifths. This is not like that. This is more, I think of this, and I've been teaching this now with our students,

to think about this, not in a linear fashion of like, what's the right fingering to do this in every key? Because how often do you do that? I know. Really what you're talking about is little zones, Yeah. So think about it with your thumb rooted to the C, with your thumb on the F, with your thumb on the G.

Then go through the keys like that. So how does that work in E flat? Like, you know, for the piano, E flat is tricky. You've got to kind of anchor your thumb on the E flat. Yep. And there's zones, again, you can anchor your thumb on the G flat. On the D flat. Like, you need to get comfortable with where your hand fits on this scale.

it's probably more crucial with the blues scale than any other scale. How does the shape of your hand and your physiology line up with how this sounds? And what are the sounds that when you transcribe people playing the blue scale can you get, thinking about how your thumb is anchored to,

if you're on piano, how your thumb is anchored to one of those notes. And so when we say bluesie double stop, a double stop is we're talking about like playing two notes at the same time. But really in that where you're like kind of playing one on top, and then the bottom note might be moving.

That's usually how it goes. And we have a couple of these that we can demonstrate and even, I think there's, I don't know if there's like a real theory behind this at all, but there's definitely some that work better than others. Yes, right, right. And I think that the one, maybe we could start with, is the ones that you were just talking about

where a note stays, at least for a period, the same on top. So like we're kind of key of F. Wait, are they going to be able to see the keyboards now? Yeah, they'll see the light up keyboards. I'm excited about that. So, okay, so you're playing, I think, the first one that I,

remember like kind of picking off the radio when I was a child. And that's, we're in the key of F and having F on top. And somewhere around the fifth, the flat five, the four. Yeah, kind of just bluesy melodies. But with that F on top, right? Right. And I think the trick

to this, or one approach to it I like is you don't have to play that top tonic note, the F in this case, with every melody. In fact, it kind of works better if you don't. So, like, if you think about, you know, you might play. So if that's your kind of primary melody on the bottom.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm playing a lot of them, but not everyone. It's funny because, you know, I think we've done this a lot. So when you start to think about it, it becomes a little contrive. It's really something I don't think about it very often. It's just kind of like an accent. If you think about it that as opposed to actual, you don't want it as a static thing that you're repeating. That's another good one that you kind of just hinted at with the tonic on top.

If we're an F, it's F. is like that where you can kind of go off the minor third chromatically. But you don't even have to those are all great. I like this one too

even with the seventh. Yeah. So you have E flat and F like that. Yeah. And then there's... Yeah, so now this is variation number one.

With that dominant seventh on top, you can do all the same kind of stuff. That especially sounds good, that fifth. Yeah. Yeah, and then what we're combining, too, because sometimes, like, if you take these and you just go, that's fine, but if you,

like, you're combining it with some grace notes, so some bent tones, you know. That's the bluesy. The bluesy, yeah. We're feeling kind of bluesy today, aren't we? Yeah. That Chipotle sitting in my tummy's got me, give me the blues, man. You know, another one I like with the seventh on top is,

is like a herbieism. Yeah. Ooh, yeah. Maybe like an F minor. Yeah. Yeah, and I think you always have the decision once you start moving through the octaves, how long you're going to keep one of your top notes. And really, I think you can tell when you either, like, say, hear a Herbie soul

or anybody playing these and then start to put it into your playing. You can sort of tell whether or not the top note becomes the melody or not. There's some kind of gray area, but usually it's just there for the axis. Yeah, it's really just there. But I mean, sometimes, like if you go. and you're moving each one with it, then it sort of becomes the top note, like you're hearing that.

But when that's, as soon as you have independence of that, like the movement of the middle or the lower voice and the top note stays the same, it becomes really like almost like an act, a rhythmic ornamentation to your main bluesy line. Yeah. Let's keep moving down with this top note.

If we go to the sixth here in F, which is D, I mean, the one that first comes to mind is probably that, you know, on the ninth there. One that I, man, I remember hearing this and like noting it at this bluesy double stop. There's a guitarist, legendary blues guitarist based here in St. Louis for years and years named Benny Smith. Amazing. Oh, yeah.

And he would do this with the sixth on top and then he would like pull up to the fifth, which sounded great on guitar. And then I was like, that would sound good on piano. It sounds. So you get that CD. Like he would do stuff like that all the time. Second crunch is so great. Yep, good stuff. Okay, so that's the six.

The fifth. There's lots to be done on the fifth, too. Yeah, there's lots to be friends. So this one kind of is almost like maybe like that, like the tonic up its top in terms of. Yeah, I like this one for like on the third especially. Oh, yeah. Yeah, and what you're doing there is like you're using that grace note again to play around with the major, minor, bluesy kind of. Yeah.

And a lot of times, you know, we'll think of from minor to major, but you can also go major to minor. And it's not usually, that's a different kind of thing. That's a different thing, yeah. And Monk did this a lot, Thelonious Monk as it. You know, really had that great technique of bending the note, and then you can just add that fifth or the octave above it. I love to bend the note.

Okay, the fourth, I don't really, I'm just thinking, like I wouldn't use it over an F as a, I mean, but it's more of a suss thing. or a minor thing. Which sounds great if it's a s. And then the third I also probably don't use on top of any blues. I'm trying to think. Major third. Major third.

But the minor third. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's right. So these are great. Actually, any kind of shell. Yeah. You know, we talk about practicing our voicings in our right hand as well as our left hand. Any shell can be used as a bluesy double stuff.

I think in the intro I did something like. like this G7 and you hear Oscar Peterson do this all the time I mean he'll do like a whole blues chorus yeah and I think Oscar was such a master of going to this kind of

and then throwing them in either at the beginning and or the end of you know and then go single line flurries kind of thing and then coming back to this very effective so you can use those shells like to your advantage in these bluesy double stops any thirds and seventh Yeah.

It's really fun to go through those. Yeah, and in case people miss it, just what you were just talking about, we talk about the shells, which is normally the seventh and the third. There's some other shells, but certainly over the blues. And we're talking about learning them in both hands so that you can use them, you know, root shell pretty, you know, bigger voicings in either hand. Maybe you're walking a baseline,

but also for these kind of applications for shapes that are going to set off your melodic improvisation. And you can actually do this on any, like, four-note voicing. Yeah. You know, just break it up into some bluesy double stops. The second or the ninth, I would use on, like, a major seven. Yep. That kind of sounds.

That kind of reminds me if when you do it up there, like with the F on the root, the sixth with the sharp 11. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, these are so nice, man. Yeah. Now, would you consider these? I know we're getting a little bit away from bluesy with the sharp 11, but would you,

I kind of consider these double stops too when you go. Oh, like pentatonic? Yeah, well, pentatonic or not, but just, you know, when you're going from single line into a couple of two notes. Yeah, those I consider double stops. I don't know if I put them in the same category as like. Right.

That's what I said without the bluesy part. But I see what you're saying. Or even if you go like, say, back over to F blues. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you could add one in where it's like, And those are almost like two independent melodic lines a little bit. So nice.

All right. If we're debating what is and isn't a bluesy-bell stuff. I know, we can do whatever the hell we want. But do you consider something like? Yeah. Like. Yeah. Right?

I mean, because it's moving. Yeah. Well, especially the way that you approach it because you were like. And so the main melody note is on the bottom. That's kind of what typifies us a lot of times is that. you know, usually the melody and then the accompaniment or the harmony notes are below it. This is traditionally an area where the accompaniment and the rhythmic accentuation is on top. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

One thing I'm thinking of is instead of like that for a diminished sound, right, which you could use with any kind of flat nine chord. So if I have G7 here, it's like my two. You know, we talked about the sort of the shell using F and B. But you could do a diminished, like a B diminished. Yeah. And you could either use like D and A flat, but you could also use B and A flat, like the outside notes of that diminished chord and just fall off it. That's another awesome thing.

For sure. And you know what this is? Like all this stuff, this is just about like ways for us on the piano or on the keyboard to express interesting, you know, melodic things that. that really, you know, except for the guitar, and look, a lot of these are kind of taken from guitar. It's made, they're made to sound like guitars for sure. But, I mean, single-line instruments can't do, but like a trumpet or a saxophone or a vocal can bend notes in a way. This is almost like a lot of times uses almost like a bending ornamentation kind of thing. This is our way to bend notes for sure.

I was just thinking like those diminished, like especially that's a little bit of a like a bendy kind of. And you can do the same thing with like augmented. Yeah. You know? Yep. Don't you do that? What is that? That's not really a double stop.

No, but it's fun. It has that feel. Yeah. Now, what about just one last one we could maybe think about, aren't there times when we'll do like... Well, I'm thinking like... Sometimes you'll do that. Almost like a funk groove, you know?

Like almost like a New Orleans funk thing. So it's the double stop is like triple kind of triple. You know? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Like, that's the main melody. Yeah, I like that minor third with the six. Yeah.

And if you're on a minor chord, like C minor here is what you're playing. Like almost thinking of it like F7 with these bluesy doubles. Yeah. Yeah. Sure, yeah. Yeah, that'll work. Good, good, good. Yeah, man.

We got through it. We did. The bluesy double stops. Bluesy double stops. Dund.