Home Alt › Forums › Repertoire › The more scales, modes and chords I know…then all the better?
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November 6, 2014 at 2:33 pm #9828
đ Hi Johnny,
When I was getting together every Monday afternoon with the local band director, Mr. Baker, he really stressed the importance of Scales, Modes, etc.. We talked about Major/minor scales–Natural, Harmonic, Melodic–and I’ve always practiced them every since I learned about them and worked on committing them to Memory (With the Harmonic minor we raise the 7th and with the Melodic minor we raise both the 6th and the 7th). Right now, I was starting to learn as much as I can about chords and I soon learned that there are more chords than I ever thought there were! But when I showed my nephew’s keyboard player (he’s played the keyboard for a while) what I was learning from Killer Blues, he said for a Saxophone player Johnny’s ebook was “the bread and butter” of Improvisation and that I didn’t really need any more than that—saying that the things I’ve learned from Mr.Baker “rarely” come into play for a Saxophone player. So I got a little confused, because here I am with a Keyboard/Piano player, and yet I’m being told something that is totally different to what I’ve been taught….there’s so much I have yet to learn, so I’m thinking “what do I know compared to these guys?”
I sent Mr. Baker an e-mail, passing onto him what my nephew’s keyboard player said to me so as to get feedback, and he told me that “nothing was further from the truth”. He said as a Saxophone student, the more I knew about Music theory, whether it be a Scale, a mode or a Chord, then the better player I will be. As a band director, he said he was passing on to me one of the important “keys” to make me a player that would “separate you from the rest.” He ended his e-mail with almost the exact same words that Johnny told me “never, never, EVER let anyone tell you different.” He LOVES Johnny’s Saxophone playing đWhat would make an experienced keyboard or piano almost “downplay” the importance of music theory to a Saxophone player? Do they just not know any better? When it comes to music theory, do they just not put the Saxophone same “light” as it being something important? Do they just not give it the same respect? Is it a lack of understanding? I just need reassurance that, when it comes to studying Music theory, that I’m not just wasting my time.
November 6, 2014 at 3:20 pm #12943No, Baker’s right. The young keyboard player is simply seeing the sax as an instrument that plays one note at a time (and he’s right of course) but shows ignorance for the instrument. While we don’t strike chords at once like a guitar or piano player, we still need to play chords as a succession of individual notes or else how could we improvise? No one can improvise without playing chords and scales, it’s as simple as that.
I will put together a detailed lesson covering some needed theory as it pertains especially to improvisation.November 6, 2014 at 4:59 pm #12944What was confusing me was trying to understand exactly what their keyboard/piano player was talking about. I know very well the importance of Scales and chords–and while I have so much to learn, I’ve learned enough to know better than anyone saying that I don’t need to learn scales and chords and he wasn’t disagreeing with me about it. He was implying that, when it comes to the specific music theory that I have been learning about, it really didn’t come into play with the Saxophone and didn’t need to worry about it. So I think your right Johnny that it’s ignorance.
In his reply e-mail to me, Mr. Baker provided me with a list of some pretty amazing well-known pieces of music to check out online and I’m actually doing that tonight–a lot of it is Symphony. He brings out in his e-mail that while each of these Symphonies have their own distinct sound and feel, they also have a lot of factors in common too and help to drive home the importance of what he’s conveying to me to refute what I was told: without an understanding of music theory, it would be impossible to create our own melodies or Improvise on the Saxophone over an existing song and that I would never become more than an “average” player. I don’t want to be just “average”!!!November 7, 2014 at 2:47 am #12946Anonymous
Johnny, I’m interested in seeing what part of music theory is needed in improvisation as well.
If you want to play sheet music everyone knows that you need some level of music theory knowledge to play it.
It’s the same as driving a car – you have to pass a driving theory test as well, otherwise you’d end up driving through red lights not realising you’re meant to stop at them.
If you are going to play from memory, 9 times out of 10 you’ll be looking at a sheet of music and memorising it, so you still need the music theory, unless you’ve got someone to show you how to play it by hand.
But the one good thing about music theory is, once you know it, it applies to all instruments in some way or another.November 7, 2014 at 4:23 am #12947Another interesting thing, there are improvisation courses out there that claim not to use any music theory!
They basicaly train you to know in your head what key to play for any sound you hear.
So if you can play the song in your mind, you can play it on your instrument.
I knew a very old guitar player that could do that, and he could accompany any singer with chord arrangements.
In fact its a far lot easier to accompany a singer on a keyboard, just playing chords only, than it is to play straight melody.
But i’ve looked at some of these courses and they don’t get you to learn individual scales but they get you to learn the scale patterns.
eg all major scales have the same patterns.
The reason being, cause they know all western music is wriiten around scales!
So if you know what scale a song is in, you know what notes to play roughly.November 7, 2014 at 8:42 am #12948if you know what key the song is in then you know some theory.
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