Essential Gypsy Scales

kevorkazito

Jazzaferri wrote:

Didn't Sting write a song saying something like goo goo goo da da da etc. :twisted: mind I really like alot of his stuff...

Ha! Yes, something like that. Now, there's a book I would recommend, 'Broken Music' by Sting. I'm actually a closet bassist (was quite surprised to learn that Bireli luvs the bass too), well, Sting talks about if you look at the foundation of music from notation, the bass clef is holding everything up. Quite a story, actually a page turner. Take care.

AmundLauritzen

I don't know about many players who think in terms of scales when they play.
I hear some symmetrical diminished scale in the new French generation. They seem to draw a lot from post-bop jazz and mix it with Django vocab.

If you really want to learn scales, then I'd say the major and minor scales are essential scales to know first. Then harmonic minor, particularly the Phrygian Dominant mode. If you analyze the playing of Stochelo Rosenberg, you find he favors that scale on dominant chords going to minor.
But you can bet Stochelo doesn't know that scale. He arrived it at differently.

A way to cheat yourself to phrygian dominant without learning a new scale is to play the harmonic minor up a fourth. For E7 going to Am6, play the A harmonic minor. The problem that happens often when people think like this is that they will play around the chord tones of A minor. Although Am6 and E7 share many tones, the gravity of the line will not pull to E7 because of how you think in your mind.

So if you go that route, be sure to know where the chord tones of E7 is and emphasize those in your lines. Again, this is how scales complicate things in gypsy jazz. It'd be better to learn as many licks, phrases and solos as you can. Then when you know them you can analyze them, and you'll see how the scales are used musically. This in turn will teach you how to use those scales to create new lines with the foundation of the old licks that you learned - you develop your own style!

Lydian is also a cool scale to know. But then again you can get there quicker and easier by just putting some #11s in your major lines.

If you do practice scales, be sure to practice the appropriate arpeggios with them and have a backing track with the chord so you can hear how it relates to the harmony. The arpeggios will establish the gravity of the scale. Very important! Otherwise, you run the risk of sounding like the countless pentatonic players who just float above the harmony hitting random notes and hoping it comes out nice, which it rarely does.

So my point is that if you do want to dive into scales, practice them in context. Integrate them into actual lines.
Here's one way you can do it:

If you work with the Phrygian Dominant. Compose some lines beforehand. Use the chord tones as your reference and try to make short lines outlining them. When you "freeze" the music like this, you'll have time to think things through. THEN, when you have two or three lines you have made up and memorized, start the backing track and play them to the backing track. Then improvise variations around them, this will train your ear and intuition. It is much better use of your time than just noodling around hoping to arrive at something half-decent.

Good luck

Jazzaferri

The one scale that is absolutely worth knowing and being able to play all the various arps and modes derived from it is the good old chromatic scale.

If one is fluent with it and can play all the intervals from any note.....well then all you have to do is hear the so d in your head

noodlenot

good thing about the chromatic scale is that you can start on any given note and use the same fingerings... can´t beat that!

Martlaws

Thanks to one and all for the time taken to reply. Lots of interesting info here to absorb...I shall be taking notes (no pun intended).

Special thanks to Phil for keeping the answer simple enough for a relative beginner - I also like -and agree - with your spirited approach!

ML