Scales and Practicing The Real Book

Howdy!

In addition to my music history blogging I'm beginning new posts about how to use the Real Book as your practice session for your scales!

The other day I was practicing a solo over Earl Powell's Hallucinations and discovered a cool little trick that included using an altered harmonic minor scale over the chord changes. I then started playing that scale like I do when I practice my other scales. (Note that it's not the harmonic minor scale you may be used too.) It's sort of a disjunct Lydian/Harmonic Minor Polytetrachord; or 2-four note scales. The first 4-notes are taken from the Lydian scale and the last 4-notes from the harmonic minor scale combined together. Hint: It sounds like an Egyptian scale. There also may be an actual name for this scale however this is best theoretical answer I could come up with!

The 8-note scale consists of the root, flat 2, natural 3, flat 4, natural 5, flat 6, natural 7, octave. Try to figure out a convenient fingering to flow over multiple octaves and use dominant 7 chords l-lV-V on the left hand for accompaniment. Pick a bluesy song, and use the root of the key you're playing in for your solo scale on the right hand. You can alter your rhythm or use any of the notes as your solo or improvisation. Or practice playing the scale with both hands in an octave or a two octave method and act like your playing an Afro-Cuban Montuna! More on that later.

It's always great to find something to play around with while practicing. Who knows, you might come up with something new!

Another of my Real Book practice rituals is to complete one or two of the table of contents from all of my real books. First I play through all of the songs that begin with the letter A and then I go to the letter B. If I'm really feeling wild I will include a third letter. I will complete the entire book in a about 4 or 5 days unless I find something cool to hang with or arrange. I also consult my iTunes database for different artists that have recorded the songs over the years to hear what they have done. Not only does this help with my sight reading but it keeps my chops up for that inevitable wedding gig!

For advanced scales consult the Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns by Nicolas Slonimsky.

Thanks for reading.