Question about Am Pentatonic Scale

[Michael]

😎 Hey Johnny,
I know that with minor pentatonic scales we have a flat 3 and flat 7 like you show in Killer Blues-was working on it today, but I was noticing with the Am we don’t have a flat 3 or flat 7 but rather is A,C, D, E and G (back up to A the tonic note too) Why the difference? Does it have anything to do with the intervals? Hope that doesn’t sound like too weird of a question.

[john]

Yes, the 3rd and 7 are flat in Am.
The C is a natural so it’s a minor 3rd and same goes for the G and so it’s a flat 7.
Does this make it clear now?

[Michael]

yep, I was just now at the keyboard on my wife’s organ and then it just dawned on me (feel like an idiot LOL) that the C and G in Am is already minor—good example of how the keyboard helps when we can see what’s going on. Sorry if that seemed like a dumb question–I had asked it before going to the keyboard on wife’s organ and then I could visually see why C and G we’re already Minor. I’ve been making use of the keyboard/wife’s organ with your Killer Blues lessons because when you talk about emphasizing those key notes, it’s helped me tremendously that I can visually see what you’re talking about and not just hearing it only (important too). I learn best when I can see things visually.

[john]

I totally agree. when/if you see my next improv course you’ll see how I use the piano a lot more to explain and show stuff. whether you play piano/organ or not, it is more visual on the keyboard and so can clear these types of theoretical rules up. When you go thru a university music education degree you are required to take up to grade 2 piano and theory class used a lot of keyboard demo stuff as well.

[Michael]

I ABSOLUTELY plan on buying your next improv.course! For sure, for sure. But I’m not skipping ANY steps in Killer Blues because there’s so, so much to take in. For me, it’s not enough to just Memorize a simple exercise and then think that I know how to Improvise–don’t do any good unless I can apply what you teach to other scales, different style of music, etc.. and that’s where I’m coming from when I ask questions like the question in this post. When I asked that question, my brain wasn’t making the connection that the C and G are minor intervals in the Minor Scale v.s. the major scale (no where near the same thing).

I was recently asked what got me started in really wanting to get into Improvisation and all this fun musical theory stuff and my answer to that would have to be 2 things: One, when Jake and I did our duet together there we’re a few “rotten” notes that managed to escape our attention. Even though we did a good job in Memorizing the sheet music and embellishing it, it dawned on me that simply buying sheet music and Memorizing songs just isn’t enough, makes me feel “handicapped” and limited in playing. I would tell anyone, if you really plan on sticking with the Saxophone…….especially here in the South where I live and Blues originated, then there comes a time when learning to Improvise is simply a must. I think without it, you come to a point in your playing where you stop improving–but maybe I’m wrong? That’s just the way I personally feel about it.

The second reason revolves around this great article that you put in the blog about “What Do These Songs Have in Common?”
https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/what-do-these-5-songs-have-in-common
The ability all of those great Sax players have in the article you posted along with all of those fantastic solos we all love 🙂 Improvising was the way they did it!

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