How to Improvise Jazz Piano – P2
The Jazz Scales
In our previous video tutorial, ‘How to Improvise Jazz Piano – P1’, we’ve talked about improvising piano over the most common jazz progression, using bebop scales, major and dominant, and how to use the ‘scales of the modes.’
In this video lesson, we talk about improvising jazz piano over the most common minor chord progressions. Using our scales to create our phrases, and at the same time, how to make them stable so we can play them up and down the keyboard without losing our footing. The scale is ‘stable’ when the notes of the chords fall on the downbeat.
The notes of the scales are like the letters in our musical alphabet, and they provide us with all the melodic material we need for our improvisation. To give ‘meaning’ to our jazz piano improvisation, we create words and phrases using these musical letters to create a dialog. To form words with the notes of a scale, we can break the scale into chords and then use these ‘broken chords’ to form the ‘words’ of our musical alphabet.
The Minor Scales
We have several minor scales at our disposal; all these scales have different functions ‘melodically and harmonically.’ (The Scales in this article are written on Gm to be consistent with the video tutorial)
The Classical Minor Scales:
The Natural Minor Scale
The Natural Minor is the scale that forms on the 6th degree of a Major key. Also; referred to as the Eolian Mode.
The Harmonic Minor Scale
The Harmonic Minor Scale has the same notes as the Natural Minor, except the seventh degree, which we raise by one semitone.
The Classical Melodic Minor Scale
The ‘Classical Melodic Minor Scale’ ascends using the ‘major 7th’ and descends using the ‘minor 7th.’
The Jazz Minor Scales:
The Minor Pentatonic Scale
The Minor Blues Scale
The Dorian Minor Scale
The Dorian minor scale derives from the 2nd degree of the major scale, also known as the Dorian mode.
The Jazz Melodic Minor Scale
The ‘Jazz Melodic Minor Scale’ ascends and descends using the ‘major 7th.’
The Jazz Melodic Minor Scale – Variation
The following variation of the Jazz Melodic Scale ascends as the Jazz Melodic Minor skips the Root up to the 9th and then descends from the Root down. This scale solves the rhythmic inconsistency of the Jazz melodic scale when playing over the range of an octave. (Refer to the video for examples)
The Bebop Melodic Minor Scale
The ‘Bebop Melodic Minor Scale’ solves the rhythmic inconsistency of the regular jazz melodic minor scale by adding the ‘minor 7th’ as a passing tone, both ascending and descending.
The Bebop Melodic Minor Scale – Variation
The following variation of the Bebop Melodic Minor Scale; uses the ‘major 3rd’ and the ‘minor 7th’ as passing tones. The scale ascends as the bebop melodic minor and descends as the dominant bebop scale. (Refer to the video for more information)
