Adding a minor 3rd and flat 7 when Improvising with a Pentatonic Scale

[Michael]

😎 Hey Johnny,

Having some fun with the Alto tonight, working on my own licks–can’t wait to get back home to my “beloved” tenor 🙂 In working on different licks and riffs with a Pentatonic Scale, what are your thoughts about what I guess could almost be “breaking” a scale by adding a flat 7 and minor 3rd? In experimenting and creating my own licks for my own Improvisation, it almost feels by doing this and really emphasizing those 2 notes in particular, it just seems to add a little more “spice” to my Improvisation v.s. just Improvising with the 1,2,3, 5&6? I know we should stick with the scale, but there’s something about emphasizing those 2 notes in particular that give it a great little “twist”. I may be mistaken, but I’m almost positive I remember reading something of the sorts in your Killer Blues ebook exercises? I can’t look at it right now because it’s on a flash drive back home. I had so much going on before I left home that I forgot to pack that flash drive 🙁

[john]

yes absolutly right. In blues we can always use the b3 and b7 no matter what. even if it’s a major blues you can use the b3 as well as the M3…never the M7 tho.

[Michael]

I’ve been working on your blues exercises so much right now (the ones that I’ve learned; will resume the rest of the book when I get back home) and it kind of just occurred to me, without really thinking about it, while experimenting that I could really emphasize these 2 notes and the result is pretty amazing! Is this something that you do a lot yourself? I think I remember you mentioning in an earlier post about how you often will use a combination of things while Improvising during a single song? I see the real value of committing your exercises to memory; I had to rely on memory while out here LOL What appeals to me so, so much about Blues and Improvisation is that there’s so much that we can do! 🙂

[Author]

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