General Music Chat

Scales are my way of teaching my students to get their eyes off of the page. Too many classical musicians play in a bubble. They are not comfortable with composing off the cuff. But they all were "forced" to learn scales but us jazzers and rockers thrive in this. I tell them ( my students ), well now you know the G bebop scale ( yes, it does exist ). Now tell my Johnny, how will you use it? How will you use the D minor blues scale. You can't just learn it for nothing. Put it to use not as a scale but as a melodic line.Compose- make something up. You are allowed, you know. I attended a jazz improve class last year and the musicians who experienced classical music exclusively acted like they were falling into the grand canyon. I wanted to say "Dude, relax". What they wanted was to be told what to play. They couldn't reach a level of "cool" because they were too busy hunting for that right , perfect note. They didn't want to use their ears despite the fact that they studied ear training in their legit music classes. I love it when my "band" buddies ask me to jam with them . I just ask what key it's in and I am good to go. NOW, that being said they do not havee to tell me what key something is in...I can figure it out by using the 2 knobs on the side of my head. Either way, they are very impressed with that ability.Frankly, I love the ability to be able to play classical, jazz, rock etc and the one link to all of these are scales...plus a bit of the "cool".

Scales are my way of teaching my students to get their eyes off of the page. Too many classical musicians play in a bubble. They are not comfortable with composing off the cuff. But they all were "forced" to learn scales but us jazzers and rockers thrive in this. I tell them ( my students ), well now you know the G bebop scale ( yes, it does exist ). Now tell my Johnny, how will you use it? How will you use the D minor blues scale. You can't just learn it for nothing. Put it to use not as a scale but as a melodic line.Compose- make something up. You are allowed, you know. I attended a jazz improve class last year and the musicians who experienced classical music exclusively acted like they were falling into the grand canyon. I wanted to say "Dude, relax". What they wanted was to be told what to play. They couldn't reach a level of "cool" because they were too busy hunting for that right , perfect note. They didn't want to use their ears despite the fact that they studied ear training in their legit music classes. I love it when my "band" buddies ask me to jam with them . I just ask what key it's in and I am good to go. NOW, that being said they do not havee to tell me what key something is in...I can figure it out by using the 2 knobs on the side of my head. Either way, they are very impressed with that ability.Frankly, I love the ability to be able to play classical, jazz, rock etc and the one link to all of these are scales...plus a bit of the "cool".

I guess i got too much classical training, i jsut cant phathom jazz progressions.
Not that I need to be told what to play, becuase honestly we usually just play until something sounds good, break it down figure out what its doing and work in the rest from there. We are really just present as the song is written nothing is forced. Well unless its it 7/8 thats a lil forced hahaha but its fun to play in so is 3/8 come to think about it.

Jazz progressions are so easy. Forgetting key changes, they are all based on DOM7 resolution. Blues players been doing this forever. Remember that ending 1/2 step up or 1/2 step down ,DOM7, or even using it on V or IV. Classical and big band rule ,,,, any DOM7 chord can be resolved by 1/2 step.
This just threw all the rules out the window. If it sounds good play it.