Suggested scales for 12-bar blues (more on the jazzy side)

[Terje]

Let's start by establishing a progression, cause there are variations and they don't all sound the same. Well, actualy, they do sound kind of the same and you can play one while the band plays another, but that's another story. I'll work from this one:

|C7|F7|C7|C7|F7|F7|C7|C7|Dm7|G7|C7|G7|

 

Basically I'd start out with the blues scale. Don't overlook this scale even if you play jazz. If you do you're no longer playing jazz, you're playing pop. And we don't wanna do that OK

 

But to this I'd add three altered pentatonic scales. For the C7 chord you can play G alt. pent. (G A Bb D E) cause it outlines the C7 chord really nicely. For the F7 chord you play C alt. pent. and for the G7 chord you play D alt. pent.

 

The Dm7 works fine with D alt. pen. too since that's a minor scale (has the b3 in it). And besides, Dm7 is a sub for G7 in this case so there's no need to change scales.

 

If you wanna spice it up a bit more you can use the Gb diminished scale (Gb G A Bb C Db Eb E) going from F7 to C7, especially in bar 6. This creates movement.

 

If you want it to sound more bebop then you can play the Ab alt pent. over G7, both in bar 10 and in bar 12. It leads really nicely to the G alt. pent. of the C7 chord.

 

Lots of other things you can do but this is plenty. Don't do all of these "tricks" in every chorus either (unless you're just practicing). Stay on the blues scale.

[evan_02]

one thing i like to do that i don't think you mentioned it pretend that there is a b5 sub going on-pretend there is a Gb7 instead of C7 and play some Gb major pentatonic....just another way to get altered sounds
can we have some consonance with the dissonance sir?

[Terje]

Originally posted by evan_02 one thing i like to do that i don't think you mentioned it pretend that there is a b5 sub going on-pretend there is a Gb7 instead of C7 and play some Gb major pentatonic....just another way to get altered sounds can we have some consonance with the dissonance sir?

That's true. No I didn't exactly suggest a tritone sub, even though playing the Ab alt pent. over G7 hits many of the same tension notes.

[evan_02]

hey terje,
can you hear altered lines in your mind's ear? i have no problems hearing diatonic lines/melodies when i play but hearing all those funny altered notes is tough...can you get any melodies out of them?

[Terje]

You'll get there, don't worry. I'm hearing it more and more. It takes time and work though. Here are some things that have helped me.

Play these notes often. Get used to the sound. Keep things simple, use pentatonic sacles or something else you know weel so you can focus on the sound and not the scale. Once you get the sound you can (hopefully) work on other scales.

Listen for the direction of the notes, they are leading towards a resolution (which is mainly why they sound good). Without the resolution most of us find them too harsh. So direction is important.

Use sequences. Like this idea over a ii-V-I in C. Over Dm7 play C maj. pent, over G7 play C# maj. pent and over Cmaj7 play D maj. pent. (gives you a lydian touch). Play short one-bar phrases, and repeat the same phrase a half-step up for each chord.

[Jimmy James]

I would use all kinds of things over a progression like that, which is part of my problem. Too much information and not enough solid conviction within a specific methodology. There's so many ways to go when playing Jazz/Blues.

For example, aside from your garden variety pentatonic scale or blues scale, I'll use the same thing but with a flat 6. That one note colors that whole scale so much over the I chord.

Then there's a thing I got from studying a Wes Montgomery instructional video. Over C7 improvise using a Gm scale. "Minorization." Very hip and very uptown. You can almost look at it like playing F Dorian over C7.

F Mixolydian over the IV? G Mixolydian over the V? Very jazz with no Johnny Winter or SRV in sight.

One of the cool things I stole from Django is playing a F# Diminished arpeggio over the V and resolving back into a jazzy T-Bone style lick.

Too much information.

[Notorious B U G]

Terje, couple thing about your post are confusing to me. You talk about alt. pentatonic scales, but they dont have a raised 5th degree. I'm accustomed to the term altered to indicate a raised 5th scale degree.

The other thing is a diminished scale is commonly refered to as a scale that goes whole/half etc. You have indicated a dim scale as half/whole. I have definatley heard of half/whole, just not commonly refered to as the standard dim. scale.

[Terje]

Originally posted by Notorious B U G Terje, couple thing about your post are confusing to me. You talk about alt. pentatonic scales, but they dont have a raised 5th degree. I'm accustomed to the term altered to indicate a raised 5th scale degree.

 

 

This scale is also know as the minor pentatonic scale. Cause what it is is simply the majoprpentatonic scale with the 3rd lowered or altered if you will. But it's very useful to get altered sounds, that might be another reason for calling it altered. If you take the Ab altered pentatonic scale and play it over a G7 chord you're getting mos tof the sound of the full altered scale.

 

 

The other thing is a diminished scale is commonly refered to as a scale that goes whole/half etc. You have indicated a dim scale as half/whole. I have definatley heard of half/whole, just not commonly refered to as the standard dim. scale.

 

 

I'm not good with diminished scales. I've learned to think about them this way. The diminished chord that goes with the IV chord in a blues is the same as the IV chord but with the root raised. Then I build the scale around that, but mostly I'll just play the arpeggio.

[QLR]

What Terje is referring to as the G alt. pentatonic minor scale (G-A-Bb-D-E) should NOT be alternately referred to as G minor pentatonic. Minor pentatonic scales contain a Root, m3, P4, P5, and m7. In the case of G, this would be G-Bb-C-D-F. Major pentatonic scales contain a Root, M2, M3, P5, and M6. For G, this would be G-A-B-D-E. So, while Terje's "G alt. pentatonic minor" is derived from G major pentatonic by lowering the M3 (B) to a m3 (Bb), it is not a G minor pentatonic.

Hope this helps more than it confuses!

[Terje]

To add to any possible confusions here's my take on it. The minor pentatonic as we know it (for instance in A; A C D E G) is actually a mode of the major pentatonic (the relative key of C; C D E G A). There are those (for instance Mick Goodrick in his book The Advancing Guitarist) who simply refer to both these scales as the pentatonic scale, and I actually think this is correct.

In that case it makes more sense to call the altered pentatonic for the minor pentatonic scale. And anyway, I think the reason for it being called altered is again that used like I've suggsested (Ab alt. pent. over G7) the notes are actually derived from the G altered scale.