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Re: Why Momorize Scales, etc?

Author: EEBaum
Date: 2011-01-29 16:37

I've been musing over this question quite a bit lately, though more from a different angle... why do most jazz players, when they're improvising, even when they're improvising things other than jazz, always sound like they're playing jazz? Because they've drilled jazz scales, arpeggios, and patterns for years.

So why learn scales and arpeggios rather than just learning a bunch of lit? No huge reason, if you're not planning on improvising. Learning tonal scales will make learning tonal repertoire easier, because the patterns are under your fingers. Whatever patterns you're used to playing are much easier to recall when playing a piece. If all you play is 12-tone music, major and minor scales won't do that much for you.

If you spend a lot of time learning tonal repertoire that's in a variety of keys, you'll probably learn the useful patterns found in most scales without "playing scales." Learning the scales themselves will enhance your versatility and ensure that you didn't miss a few combinations that never happened in the music you learned.

I was taking wind improv lessons a while back, and at my first lesson, my teacher commented that my melodic language consisted primarily of major and minor scales and arpeggios and suggested I practice a greater variety of patterns so I have more to pull out of thin air, which has helped me greatly.

I'm now thinking of experimenting on myself, carefully selecting a handful of unusual pitch combinations to learn very well, and see if this creates a particularly distinct language when I improvise.

-Alex
www.mostlydifferent.com

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Why Momorize Scales, etc? new

CarlT

2011-01-29 00:41