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Saxophone Blues Scales – If You Want To Play Blues, Rock, Jazz You Need To Start Here

Posted by admin on March 5th, 2010 No Comments



If you’re a saxophonist interested in playing any type of blues based music including rock and roll and even jazz then you need to use the blues scale as your number one tool to make things sound right.

A little history

If you want to investigate back to the beginnings of the blues as it came about in America just start with W.C. Handy, who was a black composer active in the early 1900’s when the blues form began to get popularized in large part because of his instrumental compositions “Memphis Blues” (1912) and “St. Louis Blues” (1914). Of coarse the blues oral tradition can be traced back to the mid 1800’s.

The blues scale

Because our western music has it’s roots in European classical music the music theorists needed to notate the blues scale as it was naturally played and sung into an understandable notation which could be analyzed and played by western trained musicians.

The simplest way to explain it’s theory is this:

Simply take the traditional major scale; C D E F G A B C and flatten the 3rd, 5th, and 7th. Now it looks like this: C D Eb E F Gb G A Bb C.

(Please look at the example on my website for the full musical notation). Notice the E, G, and B have been flattened, they are the 3rd, 5th and 7th notes of the C major scale and flattening them makes the scale sound minor thus giving it the “blues” or sad sound as opposed to the “major” or happy sound.

For us sax players these flat notes are perfect to incorporate a “growl” sound to further emphasize that “bluesy” expression or make it a bit more nasty. Two other things to notice; the 3rd and 5th can be played as a flat or not but the 7th generally is only played as a flat and not the major 7th in this type of scale or musical genre. (for some audio examples please refer to the website version of this article).

So now our basic major scale of 8 notes is now a blues scale of 10 notes. There are other variations to this blues scale; the basic version for example is a 7 note scale: C Eb F F# G Bb C (the F# being the same as the Gb). Adding the D, E natural and A give us more musical possibilities and will not change the basic sound of the blues scale. Even adding a flat 9th ( D flat) was a favorite thing Charlie Parker did a lot and is a good way to jazz up your phrases.

The blues progression

Of coarse this is all just words and notes and theory. You have to apply it and in any blues music this is done over a musical progression thats 12 measures in length, thus the term “12 bar blues”.

We’re in the key of C so the first 4 bars will be the C chord. The 5th and 6th bars change to the 4 chord which is F (4th note in the C scale).

The 7th and 8th bars change back to the 1 chord (C). The 9th and 10th bars change to the 5 chord, which is G. The 11th and 12th bars change back to the 1 chord (C). There are variations in this 12 bar pattern and can be seen on the website version of this article.

When starting out you can get away with just playing the same C blues scale over the entire progression but try to emphasize 1 or 2 of the notes in the F and G chord to make things a little more interesting. For example, over the F chord play an F or an A note to emphasize the harmonic color of the chord a little more.

In conclusion

The blues mean different things to many people ranging from musical styles to a way of life or philosophy. The blues do have musical influences from Europe and Africa but it is truly an American musical form and tradition fully rooted in the black experience of the post-war southern United States.

I want to be clear that when I talk about the blues or the blues scale I’m not only referring to this type of musical tradition and style but include funk, R&B, country, jazz and pop. Like the old saying goes; The blues had a baby and they names it rock & roll and from there came just about every form of pop music in western history since that explosive time in the mid 1900’s

And so, I think it’s safe to say that the blues scale is easily one of the most used and important scales for all types of western popular music.

By: John Ferreira

Posted in Jazz Festivals

How to Play Jazz Guitar

Posted by admin on November 13th, 2009 No Comments

There are many ways of starting to investigate how to play jazz guitar. Some guitar players see jazz as a way to learn improvisation. Others see jazz guitar as an instrument that accompanies a certain repertoire of songs. But once you start to actually study jazz you are confronted with a head-spinning array of odd looking chord shapes and endless discussion of modes and scales.

Just what is your average beginner guitar player supposed to think when all he wants to do is learn how to play jazz guitar? Well, jazz kind of grew like Topsy from its beginning as part of Black American culture in the early twentieth century. The rest of America and the rest of the world started adding their own interpretations of jazz music.

So now under the heading of jazz guitar we have widely diverse styles as those of Wes Montgomery, Lenny Breau, Joe Pass, Charlie Byrd, John McLaughlin, Herb Ellis, Pat Metheny and Charlie Christian. This list is just off the top of my head and these guys’ playing styles are as different from each other as cheese is from Shinola.

So where is the starting point for anybody who wants to learn how to play jazz guitar? I would have to say the repertoire. There is a body of songs and instrumental pieces that are called jazz standards. There is a website called Jazz Standards dot com that has twenty pages listing one thousand jazz standards.

Here is a list of familiar titles from the top one hundred jazz standards: Body and Soul, All the Things You Are, Summertime, ‘Round Midnight, My Funny Valentine, What Is This Thing Called Love?, Yesterdays, Stella By Starlight, Autumn Leaves, Star Dust, Willow Weep for Me, Honeysuckle Rose, Sweet Georgia Brown, Caravan, The Man I Love, St Louis Blues, How High the Moon, Oh, Lady Be Good!, Take the “A” Train, Embraceable You, On Green Dolphin Street, These Foolish Things, Sophisticated Lady, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Night and Day, Georgia on My Mind and Satin Doll.

So the jazz repertoire seems to be the one common thing amongst the diversity of styles of playing and levels of innovation. Of course you need to get into subjects like what jazz chords are and why they have evolved and the various movements in jazz music but in order to keep it simple start with a list of your favorite songs. Once you have a list of maybe twenty or so songs from the repertoire of jazz standards you can listen to how jazz guitar players have interpreted the songs on your list. From listening to interpretations you can go to learning the chords that you need to play your songs and start practicing them.

As for improvisation, many people feel that in order to learn jazz guitar improvisation you need to learn to play a multitude of exotic scales and modes. A much more enjoyable alternative is to simply play along with your favorite songs. Learn licks from other jazz guitarists. You can always put what you have learned into the theoretical framework later if you feel that you need to. As a general rule, while you are learning, stick to the major scale all over the fretboard.

So, as with any style of music, if you want to learn how to play jazz guitar the jumping off point is the jazz standards and how you want to interpret your favorite pieces.



By: Gyorgy Huba

Posted in Jazz Festivals

Jazz Guitar Chords Online

Posted by admin on October 1st, 2009 No Comments

Learning jazz chords online can be confusing and frustrating to
say the least. Just when the budding jazz guitarist thinks
they’ve stumbled onto something along comes another version of
the same song with a completely different set of chords.

For our present discussion, we’ll limit our observations and
suggestions to learning jazz chords online, however a quick
browse through any well stocked sheet music store will reveal the
same issues that any aspiring jazz guitarist must learn to
overcome.

The choice of chords the guitarists selects has a significant
effect on the soloist’s choice of notes in their solos and
presentation of the melody.

There’s an endless list of possible chords, chord inversions,
chord substitutions etc. that can totally blind side the newbie
jazz player. In fact, the task is often so overwhelming that the
avalanche of information swamps the guitarist with an enormous
amount of stuff they do not have to learn.

So,before trotting off to another jazz guitar website in search
of the lost chord, here’s a few things to think about to pin your
ear on straight!

Focus your jazz studies on specific objectives: a great idea is
to learn the chord changes to “jazz standards”.

Jazz standards are tunes that working musicians are likely to
encounter at any time. Too often, guitarists with a rock or
country background wishing to move into jazz don’t know the tunes
that are the common currency of players in all styles of jazz.

Here’s a sample list of 20 jazz standards:

1. Autumn Leaves

2. All The Things You are

3. All Of Me

4. Ain’t Misbehavin’

5. C Jam Blues

6. I Got Rhythm

7. Have You Met Miss Jones

8. Out Of Nowhere

9. I Cover The Waterfront

10.Satin Doll

11.Misty

12.Summertime

13.St.Louis Blues

14.Watch What Happens

15.Lullaby Of Birdland

16.Sweet Georgia Brown

17.Georgis

18.Take The ‘A’ Train

19.Stormy Weather

20.There Will Never Be Another You

There are many books that show how to use chord substitutions,
but if the basic chord changes are not known, substitutions and
embellishments often confuse the improviser and the listener.

When the musician is learning jazz guitar chords online, it’s
essential to learn the basic set of chords for the jazz
standards.

Chord substitutions to basic chords are usually determined by the
melody notes and the style of music being played.

The point is that guitar players can become totally absorbed in
jazz chord manuals that teach chord substitution etc., without
firstly learning the basic set of chords.

Keep in mind that while the melody of a jazz tune is usually
presented in an accurate manner in standard sheet music, the
harmonic changes are rarely suitable for a jazz performance.

Once the guitarist learns the skills of being able to uncover the
basic chord changes to jazz standards, they can then re harmonize
the harmonic background many different ways to reflect the way
they wish to present a particular piece of music.

Understanding how to strip back the chords also helps the
guitarist see many similarities in the small number of chord
templates that thousands of jazz tunes are composed over, which
helps us remember tunes.

I repeat, The essential skill to learn is to be able to ’see’
(de-code), and ‘hear’ the basic set of chords.

The purpose of learning the basic set of chords when you are
learning jazz chords online is to help the jazz player learn the
basic changes and allow the player to add embellishments and
substitutions on a solid framework.

By: Mike P Hayes

Posted in Jazz Festivals

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