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Jazz Scales

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CLICK HERE  to go to Jamey Aebersold's wonderful site jazzbooks.com and download his FREE Scale Syllabus!
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5 Choices
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Major Choices
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* Jamey also includes four more scale choices on his scale syllabus for Major. As these incorporate a minor third as well as a major third, I've left these out as personally I find them to be a bit confusing.  Of course, one can use ANY note ANYWHERE as long as one creates a strong melody with dissonance and release. To learn the where and how of this, it is ALWAYS best to dig it in context: Emulate, Assimilate, Innovate.

Dominant Choices
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Minor Choices
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Pentatonics
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There are MANY ways that we can use these pentatonic scales! For some jazz players, these scales in various permutations make up the majority of their vocabulary and can sound extremely modern and "out." I will refer to their many uses over certain chords and textures in Volume 2 of Leadology.

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For now, learn both of these in ALL keys and practice your own variations, patterns, and melodies using these very distinctive sounds.

Major Modes
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There are other ways of thinking of these modes along with starting on different notes of  major scale and using the same key signature (although that might be the easiest way for most people), for instance:

Start on a given note and adjust that major scale beginning on that note:

DORIAN = b3 and b7

PHRYGIAN = b2, b3, b6, and b7

LYDIAN = +4

MIXOLYDIAN = b7

AEOLIAN = b3, b6, and b7

LOCRIAN = b2, b3, b5, b6, b7

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Minor Modes

Learning these modes "as-is" might be a little tricky as we aren't using a natural minor key signature. Therefore you can adjust a major scale beginning on a certain note in the following manner if that's easier for you:

 

(Whatever's easier for you is CORRECT, BTW :)

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NATURAL MINOR ASCENDING = b3

DORIAN FLAT 2 = b2, b3, and b7

LYDIAN AUGMENTED = #4 and #5

LYDIAN DOMINANT = #4, b7

MIXOLYDIAN FLAT 6 = b6, and b7

LOCRIAN SHARP 2 = b3, b5, b6, and b7

SUPER LOCRIAN (Coolest Name EVER!) = b2, b3, Maj 3, b5, b6, and b7

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