KirkLorange
New member
Re: keys and scales.
Hi Kelvin ...
not to poo-poo or demean or negate in any way what has been written about scales here so far, if your ultimate goal is to improvise melody, try also keeping close track of chords. Chords, as they come and go in the time line, are a much better way in my opinion to create melody. Using each chord's tones, and they are always scattered the length of the fretboard, as the main notes of your melody will always yield strong, relevant melody. They can, of course be connected up with other notes as needed, and those become very obvious once you get the hang of tracking chord tones.
I only say this because I gave up scales decades ago as a means to improvise. Chords, again this is just my opinion, are a much better aspect of music to concentrate on, for they have already crytallized the raw scales into music, they have set up the context.
Spend an evening just plotting out all possible G chords, from nut to 25th fret. Figure out different ways to finger the notes, grab from adjoining shapes and positions ... then start playing these notes as single notes ... use just one finger to make sure you're not just letting your muscle memory do the work for you. Do it to all chords ... you will be amazed at how the fretboard will open up to you. What will happen is that you will see all scales at once ... you will see that at any given moment in any given tune, there are 12 notes and a heirarchy of importance set up by (the key, firstly) and the chord of the moment ... naturally, the chord tones themselves (at least 1-3-5) are the boss notes ... any extensions, like 7th, flat9, sharp5 ... all boss ... any scale notes from the mother key are next down the list (they're connecting notes)... all others from the chromatic scale next (finer resolution connecting notes). This all just becomes second nature once you can keep track of the chord of the moment.
Of course, if what you want to do IS to memorize scales and play them up and down at blinding speed ... then disregard the above. Learn all scales.
If you're interested in listening to some of my music to see if what I say is true, visit my Soundclick page http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=156391
All the best,
Kirk
Hi Kelvin ...
not to poo-poo or demean or negate in any way what has been written about scales here so far, if your ultimate goal is to improvise melody, try also keeping close track of chords. Chords, as they come and go in the time line, are a much better way in my opinion to create melody. Using each chord's tones, and they are always scattered the length of the fretboard, as the main notes of your melody will always yield strong, relevant melody. They can, of course be connected up with other notes as needed, and those become very obvious once you get the hang of tracking chord tones.
I only say this because I gave up scales decades ago as a means to improvise. Chords, again this is just my opinion, are a much better aspect of music to concentrate on, for they have already crytallized the raw scales into music, they have set up the context.
Spend an evening just plotting out all possible G chords, from nut to 25th fret. Figure out different ways to finger the notes, grab from adjoining shapes and positions ... then start playing these notes as single notes ... use just one finger to make sure you're not just letting your muscle memory do the work for you. Do it to all chords ... you will be amazed at how the fretboard will open up to you. What will happen is that you will see all scales at once ... you will see that at any given moment in any given tune, there are 12 notes and a heirarchy of importance set up by (the key, firstly) and the chord of the moment ... naturally, the chord tones themselves (at least 1-3-5) are the boss notes ... any extensions, like 7th, flat9, sharp5 ... all boss ... any scale notes from the mother key are next down the list (they're connecting notes)... all others from the chromatic scale next (finer resolution connecting notes). This all just becomes second nature once you can keep track of the chord of the moment.
Of course, if what you want to do IS to memorize scales and play them up and down at blinding speed ... then disregard the above. Learn all scales.
If you're interested in listening to some of my music to see if what I say is true, visit my Soundclick page http://www.soundclick.com/pro/?BandID=156391
All the best,
Kirk
Last edited:
