For quite a long time, I was a blues player who was also very interested in playing jazz. With ease, I could certainly generate a sound and concept that was 'jazzy', but the 'authentic' jazz sound and concept remained elusive if, note-for-note, I wasn't just copying one of the greats. Eventually, I decided / realized that jazz sounds are something that we must learn to hear for ourselves. This understanding led to countless hours at the piano learning to create jazz sounds and concepts from scratch.
To save time, on this adventure, let's jump ahead now to late December of 2021. This is when I finally got the idea to experiment with a concept that eventually became my 'blues-scale approach to playing jazz'. While composing, my aim was to capture the darker and bluesier side of jazz that my 'musical ear' had been hungry for. The result was a solo called "Chillin' With The Blues". [See Video Below]
I was happy with the sound and concept, but my brain wondered if there might be something deeper to discover about jazz. This question led to even more time invested behind the piano, and to even more discoveries, as I had fun exploring the many possibilities [some better then others]!
Again, to save time, let's jump to mid August in 2023 when I decided to return to my blues-scale approach in order to develop and test it further. This time, I composed over a standard jazz blues progression that included the following, from measures eight through eleven: VI7 altered, ii minor7, V7, I7. I also composed over additional ii, V7 I progressions in both Major and minor keys. Plus, since it is rumored to be a difficult set of changes to navigate, I created a very simple solo to test my blues-scale approach over John Coltrane's changes for "Giant Steps". See [Video Below]
Again, I was happy with the sound and content of this approach, but I still had two musical questions that had to be satisfied before I could decide 'to or not to' go all in with my blues-scale approach. To make a long story short, both questions involved my need to get my personal understanding of jazz all the way down to brass tacks. In other words, I wanted to make sure that I understood 'jazz sounds and concepts' deeply enough that, with ease, I would be able to blend my blues-scale approach in and out of lines, concepts and compositions that have been created and played by jazz greats throughout history.
And, you probably guessed it, this meant even more time invested behind the piano pushing to finally arrive at the musical understanding that I needed. So, to make a long story much shorter, we now jump ahead to October in 2024. This time, with answers in hand and having decided to go all in with my blues-scale approach, I set out to compose a solo over a simple blues progression that would be made up of 'easy to recognize' patterns. In other words, I tried to use patterns that would be relatively easy to utilize from the perspective of a jazz improviser. The result was a solo that I called "Nate's Jazz Solo #1". [See Video Below]
What Is Nate's 'Blues-Scale Approach' To Having Fun With Jazz?
It's no secret that the pentatonic scales, major and minor, are some one of the most recognized and celebrated scales throughout history. All I did was take multiple 'minor pentatonic blues scales' and string portions of them together in order to create jazz lines. These scales have a darker, warmer and bluesier sound than many other options and are easy to create lines with. Hint: It only takes one note in a jazz line to for the listener's ear to connect the beginning of it [the line] to the underlying harmony and the end of it [the line] to the underlying harmony. In this way, with great timing and phrasing, there are a tremendous number of possibilities. Using blues scales helps to narrow the field of possibilities down to a workable set while still maintaining that darker, warmer and bluesier sound.
More Detail
At the moment, I have blues scales in groups of five that I use for specific chord progressions. However, there are many more options to explore. In this way, it boils down to listening and experimenting for your self ["Insert Your Name Here"'s Blues-Scale Approach To Having Fun With Jazz].
There are a number of very cool mathematical / musical relationships between the scales that are going to be fun for you to discover [if you take on the task] This, I believe, is nature's unique way of pointing us toward certain musical truths!
The Easy Way To Learn!
If you are interested in having fun with a blues-scale approach to jazz, but do not want to dedicate hours and hours to the process of [doing it from scratch] discovery, there is another option. Each one of my practice solos, if you happen to like the lines, has a bunch of 'blues-scale approach patterns' that you can learn from:
You can transcribe them, do some analysis and build momentum that way.
Or, we can work together in a lesson format to help you learn and absorb the 'blues-scale approach' concepts using my practice solos as proper vehicles for doing so.
Either way, there is a lot of musical fun and exploration to be had!
What's Next?
What's next? Well, since I am not a musical master [what I can do musically has been 'carved out of granite' over many years of simply not giving up], I am going to need lots of time to practice. If I really wanted to get into performance work, something that I did as a blues player, I would probably need to choose one jazz instrument and really start pushing. Instead, I plan to practice and play with this material on piano, guitar, saxophone, trumpet, and vocals. I think that this is how I am going to have the most fun with Jazz.
Stay tuned for additions to this article and for more video examples of my blues-scale approach being put to the test!
For now, I will leave you with a full composition that was made using my blues-scale approach! Happy practicing!
Keep in touch!
And, thanks for reading!
Nate
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