Did you know that their are two blues scales? A minor blues scale and a major blues scale. Many students are introduced to improvising on a blues tune using the minor blues scale. The music teacher usually says just use the same scale over the entire song. The C minor blues scale consists of the […]
Category Archives: Jazz Aids
A few months ago I attended a jazz jam session in Austin Texas at Kickbutt Coffee. While at the jam session I heard a wonderful sax player and all around nice guy named Tony Bray. A couple of week ago I learned that Tony was CEO of a company named “Jazz Apps Mobile LLC“. As […]
If we begin by naming the notes in the C Major scale and then placing numbers beneath each note we have the following: CDEFGAB 1234567 The Major scale generates 7 modes and they are named Ionian, Dorian, Phyrgian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian. C Lydian can be constructed as: 123#4567 or C,D,E,F#,G,A,B C Ionian can […]
I wanted to include backing tracks for a very useful 3-5-7-9 arpeggio exercise that appears in Bert Ligon’s “Comprehensive Technique for Jazz Musicians” book. If you don’t already have a copy of Bert’s books you should invest in them. They contain a wealth of practical information to improve your jazz chops. The exercise is 2.20 […]
Wouldn’t it be nice to have something that is easy to remember that tells us the order of sharps or flats in a certain key? If you answered yes then read on. I learned the following from bass man Rob Jewett. For sharps use the phrase “Five Cowboys Got Drunk At Ed’s Bar” ( what […]