Killer Blues – Basic Blues Scales

[Khanthebrit]

Hi guys,

I purchased the Killer Blues Course earlier today and plan on just going throughout it step by step, and thus, the first thing Johnny has listed is the blues scales.

The first exercise involves using the basic blues scale and I have all these blues scales memorized, but I can’t understand it when you refer to the 1,3 5 of the scale. For instance, in the C blues scale (C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb, C) would the 1,3 and 5 not be C F and G? However, on the video 1,3 and 5 of this scale C D# and G.

Is he/ are you referring to the 1, 3 and 5 of a major scale with a flattened 3rd and a flattened 7th which ultimately creates the blues sound?

Help from anyone would be much appreciated! 🙂

On another note:
Would doing these exercises by ear lead to great results rather than reading what is given?

[Michael]

We’re working with the Blues scale and that’s what he’s talking about. With the Blues scale, we’re dealing with a minor 3rd (Eb) and a perfect 5th (G). For that particular exercise, Johnny is talking about the C-Eb-G (1-flat 3-5) that outlines the chord of the Blues Scale that we’re working with–take a look at the scales/notes that he marked down for that exercise. Check it out: The 1 is C, the 3rd (flat 3rd specifically, dealing with a minor interval) is Eb, F is the 4th, F#/Gb is the flat 5, Bb is the flat 7 and C is the Tonic. helps to remember that, for the first exercise, we’re dealing with the basic Blues Scale itself. I see exactly where you’re coming from–good point too–but sometimes when we’re on video we may/may not always stop to think about clarifying these things. The 2nd exercise is when you get into using Major Pentatonics in the Blues. The 3rd exercise deals specifially with the minor pentatonic scale/using it over a 12 bar Blues progression.
For your 2nd question, I like to do it both by ear and reading what’s given, there’s benefits to be made in both…but it’s really hard to beat the benefits of doing it by ear….when it comes to playing with a band, you know first hand that ear training is simply a must. On a side note, learn those exercises, have them fully committed to memory, know how to play them in all of the Blues Scales, and then make them your own by playing with variations of the licks/riffs. At the end of the ebook you’ll find some great licks/riffs that you can pick up very quickly and use in your playing. If you know all your Blues Scales, you’ll find them to be very easy to play in any of your Blues Scales. Hope this helps 🙂 Rock On Khanthebit 🙂

[Khanthebrit]

Thanks for clarifying Michael, I see where you’re coming from.

The ebook seems great so far. I managed to get a couple hours of practice into today and I feel these blues patterns getting ingrained into my fingers already without even having to think about the notes I am playing. I’m looking forward to progressing 🙂

[Mel]

Johnny gives a great list of the Tenor players from years past in the Killer Blues Download . I am really enjoying listening to them.

Mel

[Michael]

Great stuff guys. Mel is exactly right, listen to those guys and take note of what they do/don’t do. Once we get that sound/technique in our heads, it becomes much easier to play it–we gotta hear it before we play it. That holds true with Altissimo, Blues, etc.. Johnny makes mention in the intro of Earl Bostic–what’s awesome about him is that he played mostly on the Alto and had such a huge tone that most folks thought he was on the Tenor. To this day, Johnny says that Earl Bostic has the biggest tone on the Alto Sax that he’s ever heard from anyone. Rumor has it that he actually used a Tenor MP on his Alto Sax, not sure how true that is. That would be quite a cork job for someone to have put on the neck of his Alto! 🙂
@ Khanthebrit–Johnny tells us rather than thinking about his exercises as ‘technical exercises’ his aime is for us to understand what’s really happening in a Blues solo. That old saying of teaching someone to fish for one day and he’ll be able to go fishing for the rest of his life is where he’s coming from. Johnny isn’t giving us a bunch of endless patterns to memorize like we see in so many books, but rather he’s showing the how-to’s of making awesome Sax solos, which is definately a more practical way to go about learning how to create our own solos. There are so many famous solos out there that we’ve heard all the time, without even stopping and thinking about how those solos were constructed in the first place! Have a look at this older article that Johnny posted in his blog, I put the link below for you. With your experience as a Grade 8 Sax player, no doubt you’ve seen players who will memorize loads and loads of licks/riffs, but they have no idea how those solos are created in the first place. And because of that, they have no ability to create their own solos….that’s what were talking about here and that’s what Killer Blues can do for you….the book may seem to be ‘small’ in terms of there not being many pages (in comparison to so many books out there), but when you really get into the how-to’s and the ‘meat’ of what Johnny is trying to teach us, we come to see that it’s really powerful stuff to say the least and it’s easily my favorite course of Johnny’s here on his website….along with his Altissimo course 🙂
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/what-do-these-5-songs-have-in-common

[Khanthebrit]

Thanks for the feedback, yes, I enjoy listening to a lot of these players too. I’ll note down everything said. I am slowly going through these exercises etc, and just doing a bit of studying outside as well to help me consolidate my pentatonics and blues scales before moving onto how we actually use them to create these awesome solos we hear. Working at a crawling speed to say the least, but doing as much as I can when I’m off work with the sax as much as possible. I only just really got into the kind of music recently, and up until then my sax playing throughout the years has literally just been from music given to me to sight-read/read (quite a classical approach to learning). I really aspire and dream to get to a stage whereby I can chuck the sheet music and play and solo by ear to the songs played on stage. Because, lets be honest, no matter how much music is out there, at some point you’ll end up without the sheets on a stand.

One thing I also wanted to clear up were the minor pentatonics exercises. What confused me a little is that in the technical exercise, say for G minor, we’re playing 1,f3,4,5,f7,5 2 1. Why do we play the second degree if it is meant to be missed in a minor pentatonic? I understand, from statements in the book, that you can actually ‘add’ notes to the scale that would make sense, but is there a specific reason for playing, say, the 2nd, rather than a flattened 3rd when you come down.

I may just be being completely ignorant here, but as I said. Still a beginner in the blues world! So please excuse me if, for whatever reason, I have made some form of rookie mistake here. 🙂

[Andrew Gibson]

Hi Khanthebrit. I’ve read many times that any blues scale is not enough to make the music bluesy; throwing extra notes can add interest and it’s how you resolve the riff that’s the important thing. But of course it’s important to know the basics.
As to why the 2nd degree could be used? It’s more about whether it sounds cool – to you. But the 2nd degree is part of the natural minor scale and is only a half-step away from 3b. And I know you’ve said notes can be added that “make sense” – but I think with blues it can be cool to add notes that DON’T make sense, just be sure to finish/resolve on a blues note.
‘

[Author]

Posts