If you have followed my FJi materials at any length, you probably have run across my concept of the 3 level jamming/improvisation approaches. This week, while giving a private online lesson, we stumbled onto a level 1B that worked for my student Stephany.
See the full lesson!
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If you have followed my FJi materials at any length, you probably have run across my concept of the 3 level jamming/improvisation approaches. This week, while giving a private online lesson, we stumbled onto a level 1B that worked for my student Stephany.
Level one, in general is the concept of using one scale (usually a blues scale) for a whole song or section…. basically just zoning out and going nuts with little to no regard for the underlying chordal harmonies. My whole original Fiddle Jam book was dedicated to this approach… don’t think… just jam! It’s blissful stuff for sure, but doesn’t work in every musical situation.
Before a student is really ready for Level 2 or what I call the “Roots Music” approach, which is changing scales on the fly to fit each chord (usually only 3) in a song and using Major Pentatonic of EACH chord as they pass…. not super difficult, but does require FOCUS!
This new Level 1B brings the beginning of musical authority so you start to really sound like you know what you are actually doing and not just riffing or noodling around.
Here’s how it works, and only in SOME songs, but you have to start somewhere…
When a song’s chords are all in the same key, made of the same scale notes (this is called “Diatonic” or within a tonic/key), you can make up a new scale for each chord, USING THE SAME NOTES FROM THE OVERALL SCALE AND KEY.
?Wouldn’t they all sound the same?” you might ask… sort of, but not quite… what happens is you start “acknowledging” the chord and it’s arpeggios more and start sounding like what you are playing really FITS each passing chord better.
Example: Minor Swing by Django Reinhardt
The overall key is A minor, the overall scale is A harmonic Minor: A B C D E F G# A (watch out for the weird, Arabic-sounding step-and-a-half skip between F and G#!).
Using this scale fits perfectly for the A minor chord in the first 2 measures of this song.
Bars 3-4 use a D minor chord though, and in Level one, you’d just make stuff up continuing to use the same overall scale, for a more focused way is to rearrange the notes from the A harmonic minor scale in a new order: D E F G# A B C D, which, of course, is the same exact group of notes, but when you think and create using it starting from the D is ends up sounding like it fits better, giving your a more authoritative sound! The rub is that you really have to listen intently and pay attention, splitting your brain a bit and listening not only to what you want to play ( in your head), but ALSO the accompaniment! This is the beginnings of real musical maturity IMO.
When the chart goes to E7 in bars 5-6 you would do the same treatment using: E F G# A B C D E, again the same notes but it fits the E7 chord a bit better.
Those 3 chords are 90% of the Minor Swing song. There’s only one small anomaly: the Bb chord in bar 13 (some bands actually skip this one, substituting a Bm7-5, but Django’s original recording does have the Bb chord). Even this chord that seems like it’s from outer space in the key of Am, is very close to the whole! Just use: Bb C D E F G# A Bb. notice that all the notes are again the same exact notes except one: the Bb… so you can just throw in a Bb or two when you reach that point and don’t even worry that the last few bars switch chords faster (1 chords per measure)… just remember your rule #1 from Level 1… when in doubt, abort to the BLUES SCALE! A C D Eb E G A.
Give this slightly altered approach a try when you are ready and see if you feel and sound a bit more confident. Leave us comments out your experiences below!
Other songs that you can try the same approach on a practically limitless. Try a fiddle tune like Bile them Cabbage Down. Same old 3 chords: A D E, but instead of jamming out on the A major scale for the whole song, try using the same A major notes but switch the tonic note to match the chord:
A: A B C# D E F# G# A
D: D E F# G# A B C# D
E: E F# G# A B C# D E
These are actually MODES of each other… but that’s for another lesson…
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Happy Jams!
Fitz
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