These are the best scale exercises you can do if you want to turn these boring linear patterns
into amazing jazz solos coming up scales can be really helpful for learning jazz but
the problem with them is they're pretty unmusical by themselves so the goal of
these exercises is to make them more musical and applicable to your improv level number one
is the scale map so the very first place we need to start is of course identifying what scales we
can play over a given set of chords in a chord progression but we're already going to start
edging it towards improvisation with just a small little step so take a look at this first four bars
of have you met miss jones the chords are f major seven f diminished seven g minor seven c seven
okay so what scales can we play over top of this particular chord progression well we
can play the f major scale we can play the f sharp diminished scale or more
exactly the whole half diminished scale and we can play the g dorian scale and we could play the
c mixolydian scale but with this scale map what i'm gonna do from the very beginning is actually
connect them together using voice leading so i'm gonna be ending on one scale tone
and finding the nearest scale tone to the next chord and moving downwards the scale so it goes
up down up and down but always connecting to the nearest scale tones so that it is seamless
transition which is kind of what we're doing in improvisation anyways so here's what it sounds
like so again walking up the f major scale then the nearest tone
is the f sharp of the whole half diminished and then we're gonna walk down
and then the nearest tone is the g natural the root of the g minor so up the g dorian
and then i'm just going to go ahead and keep the shared tone the g on the c mixolydian
walk down the scale that way so so far we're only using scales here but we're starting to
get ourselves used to connecting them together which is truly what we want to be doing in our
jazz lines ultimately so that's level one the scale map level number two is the rhythm
builder so what we're going to do now in this next exercise is we're still going to use just
the scales and we're still going to practice actually just going up and down the scales
but we're going to add rhythmic interest into them and just by adding a little bit of rhythm
it's automatically gonna start making these scales a little bit more musical so what we're
gonna do is we're gonna start with a very simple rhythm like this you can see it's
okay and here's what it sounds like with the chords in the background
now once we've established a rhythm and really it could be any rhythm you want
this is just the particular one i've chosen now it's time to assign actual note values to them
so i'm simply going to be going up and down the scale no alterations to them just using
the notes from the scale so here's what it sounds like with actual notes
so again that first line moving right up the major scale but we're actually starting on
the seventh tone the lead tone so the e natural so now we're at the
f-sharp diminished and again we're just walking up the scale but using the rhythms
okay now we're over the g minor seven going the g dorian right just using the rhythms
now the c7 we're at the
mixolydian right just like that so automatically what we're doing is we're starting to train our
brains and our hands to stop thinking about these simply as linear patterns but how can
we add rhythmic variety and different interest into them and then we'll keep moving up the
line as we go through these levels level number three is motific development now
motific development just means you're taking a small musical idea it could be rhythmic or
melodic and you're trying to repeat that same idea just altering it depending on what chord
we're using so in our particular case we're going to be using a motific idea that sounds like this
so incredibly simple idea and motific lines don't have to be
complicated right so essentially the motific line is this it's these sixth
eighth notes right but punctuating the first beat of the next measure so
right so we're really just following notes in the scale but we're establishing this rhythmic
and melodic movement that we started with and just adding the different scale tones so once
you've gone through this process that's what you should start doing is coming up with different
motific ideas and figuring out what scale tones do i need to change but i want to reiterate that so
far in our exercises we've only used notes from the scales so even just with the notes from the
scales we're already starting to create real musical lines level number four is intervals
and steps we're going to start adding intervals and steps into our actual scales
which is going to create different patterns and chord tones here's what it sounds like
now this is starting to really sound like jazz so let's walk through it really quick
so we start by walking up in steps so kind of just right up the major scale now when we get
to this e natural we're now using intervals and actually this is just it's actually just an a
minor arpeggio okay so we're again using stepwise motion but again still in the f major scale so
now when we get to the diminished we're actually going to be using some larger
intervals in steps involved so we have okay very classic jazz language honestly
these are all steps right here leading into this b natural where we're gonna
start by doing intervals up which is actually these four notes right here
the b flat the d the f and the a those are actually uh b flat major seven right but
that works it's inside of the f major tonality and then we're gonna just walk down so we have
we're just walking all the way down the f major scale because g dorian and c mixolydian are in
there but then to add some interest we add an interval right so we go to the d natural
now the only note that is actually not in the scale is this g sharp this g g-sharp resolves to
an a natural okay but that sort of leads us in to our next level level number five is chromaticism
so now that we actually know what the notes of the scales are we can play some musical ideas
like the exercises we just went over now we can start playing notes that are technically not in
the scale at all which is something very typical of jazz and specifically bebop so take a listen
so let's start identifying what the actual chromatic notes
are all of this is the f major scale except for this b natural this b
natural is connecting the b flat to the c note so it sounds like this
that's the chromatic note right
and then over top of the f sharp diminished we have
right and the chromatic note there is this d natural
leading into the e flat note and then we walk up the g dorian like this
that f sharp in this c mixolydian going to the g is a chromatic approach note so what we can
start doing with all the different ideas we have is start figuring out place we can add chromatic
notes within the scale and now we're starting to go outside of just these boring linear patterns
and adding even more tension and musical interest now we've been talking a lot about scales and i've
showed you how you can actually start making the musical but actually when it comes to
jazz improvisation i usually start with chord tones themselves if you can become an expert
at improvising and identifying chord tones it's really going to help your jso so i have a video
on the screen right now i want you to click into and watch next it's called creating amazing jazz
solos using jazz chords i'm gonna give you some more strategies over there so go ahead and click
that video right now to get that lesson make sure you like this video if you found it helpful make
sure you subscribe to the channel and we'll see you in the next video cheers