Jazz Scales
Jazz Scales
Jazz Scales
Beginners Theory:
Jazz Beginners I
Jazz Beginners II
Rock & Blues Beginners
Chord Sequences
Cycle of 5ths
Upper Extensions
Modes
Minor Harmony
Altered Chords
Tritone Substitutes
Jazz Analysis
Passing Chords
Scales & Improvising
12 Bar Blues Chords
I Got Rhythm
Resources:
Improvisation:
Jazz Arranging
Instrument Ranges
Transposition Chart
Reharmonisation
Block Voicing
Backings
Piano/Gtr
Walking Bass
Drums
As soon as you can, learn to listen, transcribe and analyse saxophone solos. Transcribing the
solos yourself is much better than buying transcriptions if you have the time, it is extremely good
ear training as well as informative.
What constitutes a wrong note in jazz improvisation is often subjective. As jazz has evolved the
harmony has in some cases become more complex or abstract. When bebop musicians started to
use #11ths (or b5ths) in the 40s, the more traditional players and critics considered these to be
wrong notes. Similarly avant garde (freeform) players of the 50s and 60s shocked the jazz
establishment with their use of atonality.
It is almost impossible to provide a complete set of rules regarding what sounds good or bad. The
following are conventionally considered to be wrong notes (sometimes called avoid notes),
unless used as passing notes.
A 4th over any major chord (unless it is an 11th or sus 4 see ex. 4e)
A major 3rd on a minor chord
A minor 3rd (#9th) or minor 7th on a major 7th chord
A root note as a sustained note over a major 7th chord
A b9th on a major 7 or minor chord
A b6th on a major 7 or minor chord
A major 7th on a minor 7th or (dominant) 7th chord
There are cases where unresolved dissonance is useful for dramatic or emotional effect. There
are no rules in this case, only subjective (good or bad) taste.
The most obvious way of ensuring that you don't play any wrong notes is to play only the chord
notes, i.e. a series of arpeggios. While this is a very good exercise it can become boring and
unmusical. Unless you are immediately inspired by great spontaneous melodic phrases, the
second most obvious way is to play scales that fit the chords. This can also become tedious if
your solos end up being a constant string of scales. Ultimately one could aim to combine
arpeggios, scales, passing notes, melodic phrases and riffs into a coherent improvised
composition complete with tension, release, surprise, humour, climax, menace, pathos, irony or
whatever musical devices are appropriate to the style.
In chapter 5 we discussed how modal scales can be applied to a II-V-I progression. This is a very
good starting point: basic major, minor and modal scales can be used to supply the diatonic notes
implied by the chords on which we are basing our improvisation. To begin with it is very
important to become fluent in the use of these basic scales and modes, but there are many
complex and interesting scales used by jazz musicians to add chromatic notes.
This section of this chapter will deal with some of these scales and analyse their effects.
Bebop scales
Because bebop scales are made up of eight notes it is likely that if you start a typical 8th note run
on a downbeat with a chord note (root, 3rd, 5th or 7th) the other chord notes will also fall on
strong beats. This obviously means that notes to be avoided such as the 4th (see above: wrong
notes) become passing notes. (Ex 11b). Bebop scales should only be used as scales, not to
construct melodic phrases otherwise the added chromatic notes will no longer be passing notes
and will not fit the chord.
As the Mixolydian and Dorian bebop scales contain identical notes, the same scale can be used
across a IIm7-V7-I sequence, as with the modal method (chapter 5).
The bebop scale leads nicely to the 3rd of the repeated IIm7 to end up with a very satisfying jazz
(bebop) style. (Ex 11c)
Pentatonic scales.
These are 5 note scales, of which there are many, however only two are common in jazz and I
will refer to them as the major and minor pentatonic.
The major pentatonic is the same as the major scale but without the 4th or 7th (ex 11d-1). It is
common in western folk music and is often used by composers to impart a traditional flavour
(Amazing Grace, Auld Lang Syne)
The minor pentatonic is the same as the Aeolian or Dorian scale but without the 2nd or 6th (Ex
11d-2). This scale is sometimes used by composers to give an oriental feel.
ex 11d: Pentatonic scale
These scales can be very easy to use as they can be fitted over many chords without wrong notes,
but they can become monotonous. Used very effectively by Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane.
Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale consists of all twelve notes available in conventional western music, i.e. all
the white notes and black notes of the keyboard
We saw that with the bebop scale that chromatic notes can be inserted into a scale so that chord
notes fall on strong beats. We can take this one stage further and insert part of the chromatic
scale to achieve the same end (ex 11f).
Diminished scale
This scale consists of alternating intervals of a tone and a semitone (ex 11g-1). Another way of
looking at it is to imagine two diminished chords, one a whole tone higher than the other one
superimposed on top of it (ex 11g-2)
ex 11g: Diminished scale
This is a very useful scale to apply to a dominant 7th chord. If the diminished scale based on the
b9th of a chord is used it will not only include the chord notes (root, 3rd, 5th and 7th) but also
supply some interesting altered notes and extensions (b9th, b10th, #11th and 13th - ex 11h).It is
useful to always think of the diminished scale based on the note a semitone above the root
note of the (dominant 7th) chord. This may appear complex but has the advantage that there
are only three different scales to learn. Diminished scales built on the roots C, Eb, F# and A are
identical (ex 11j), as are the scales built on Db, E, G and Bb and D, F, Ab and B. As with
diminished chords correct enharmonic spells should be used, however in practice it is common to
break this rule, especially when writing parts to avoid double flats etc.
This scale was commonly used by jazz improvisers of the late bebop era, e.g. John Coltrane and
Oliver Nelson. (See Saxophone Exercise 7)
ex 11j: diminished scales C, Eb, F#, A. Note that the notes are identical.
Arabic scale
There are many Arabic scales but one in particular is used by western composers to imply a
middle eastern flavour. This scale can be thought of as a relative mode of the harmonic minor, ie
it is the same but starting on the fifth degree of the scale. It is very useful over a dominant 7th
chord as it adds two colourful chromatic notes - the b13th and b9th (ex 11m, 11n)
ex 11n : Arabic scale used over a II-V-I sequence (or simply V-I)
Another way to think of this is to use the harmonic minor scale with the same root as the tonic
chord that the V7 is leading to, so G7 uses a C harmonic minor but be careful not to emphasise
the note C inapropriately.
Used over a major V7 -I cadence the scale implies the modal interchange of the minor tonic for
the major tonic, even though the minor tonic never materialises.The resolution to the major 3rd
of the tonic is very satisfying after the bluesy minor feel of the scale. This scale is obviously also
very useful over a minor II-V-I.
Lydian Dominant (Melodic minor starting on 4th degree of the scale)
On a dominant 7th chord the sharpened 11th is supplied by using the melodic minor scale whose
root is the 5th of the chord (ex 11q). This scale is also clled the Lydian dominant as it is the same
as a Lydian scale but with the 7th flattened.
Using the notes of the D melodic minor scale, make C# the root and view the scale as an altered
Mixolydian.
This scale is often called the altered scale as it supplies many of the notes that are possible to
alter on a dominant 7 chord. In addition to the basic diatonic notes of C#7 this scale adds D (b9),
E (b10), G (#11 or b5) and A (b13 or +5).
Another way of looking at this would be to use the melodic minor scale based on the b9th degree
of the dominant 7 chord, in the same way we would use a diminished scale. Note that the first
half of this scale is identical to the way a D diminished scale fits the chord, the second half is a
whole tone scale. This is a very popular scale in modern jazz due to the interestingly high degree
of chromaticism.