Mar 18, 2015 playing a jazz standard with pentatonic scales. This article and interactive web app help you learn all of the pentatonic scale diagrams. Mel bay publications digital sheet music at sheet music plus. You can get more diagrams in the tuning of your choice by using my interactive web app here. You will never be at a loss of what notes to play when. This means that a g minor pentatonic scale can be played over a g minor chord progression, and a b minor pentatonic scale can be played over a b minor chord progression. Playing a jazz standard with pentatonic scales youtube. Bruce saunders is the author of jazz pentatonics 3.
Scale combining through hybrid scales in this lesson here, we take a look at another way to combine scales that differs from the type of scale combining you see in this lesson here. Granted this is written for guitarists but you still might glean some insight into opportunities for diving into some higher level uses of pentatonics. The next album i really got into was buddy guys a man and the blues. It is as if pentatonic scales were the cheaters way to improvise, or just a way to fake it. Author bruce saunders is a professor in the guitar department at worldrenowned berklee college of music in boston, is a respected member of the new york city jazz community and has many recording credits to his name, including his release on mel bay records entitled 8 x 5. Jazz pentatonics is for intermediate to advanced players wishing to expand their melodic and harmonic vocabulary. Starting the c major pentatonic scale on the 6th note of the scale produces the a minor pentatonic scale. You can see that each group of four notes starts on the 2nd note from the last group of four notes.
He is the author of pentatonics, modern blues, and melodic improvisation all mel. Music notes for ebook and online audio sheet music by bruce saunders. Its an awesome scale and sounds great, no doubt about it. Pentatonic guitar magic how to use the simple pentatonic scale to solo over chords from blues to rock tojazz. There is really nothing wrong with using pentatonic scales in jazz improvisation. This means that it uses the same note as the major pentatonic scale, but the tonic note for the scale is different. Try to use the minor pentatonic scales to achieve different qualities and textures for your music. Bruce saunders jazz pentatonics pdf chris may field. Among the pentatonic scales of western harmony, the major and minor pentatonic scales are by far the most widely used.
Pentatonic scale improvisation pentatonic scale soloing. The pentatonic scale pentatonic scales have only five notes penta means five. Combining minor and major pentatonic scales guitarhabits. This is one my favorite jazz education videos on youtube the perspective of is. The minor pentatonic scalewritten by david taub the pentatonic scale is one of the most commonly utilized scales in most music genres all over the world. Aug 07, 2015 the minor pentatonic is the most important scale in blues and rock music.
Mar 19, 2015 in this lesson i want to show you how you might apply the material i made in previous lessons on pentatonic scales on a jazz standard and use that approach to play the whole thing. We discussed some of the advanced jazz application in our recent article jazzed pentatonics pentatinics, based on the exploration of bruce saunders guitar book, appropriately titled jazz pentatonics. Minor pentatonic scales to introduce a novice guitar player to the world of rock music requires that he learn a series of scales, which we can call the tools of the trade. Cool and unusual applications of the minor pentatonic scale. Click here to learn more in our previous two lessons, we went over the major scale and the minor pentatonic scale. Playing a jazz standard with pentatonic scales jens larsen. Bruce saunders is a professor at berklee college of music. However, i find that many musicians think about using this scale with a limited perspective. Despite the age and history of the pentatonic scale, it is used extensively in modern jazz improvisation.
Guitar world summarizes the uses of pentatonics this way. The most important of these are both major and minor pentatonic. Apr 19, 2019 jazz musicians use pentatonics constantly, and the really hip jazz musicians use pentatonics from outside the keychord. Join pianogroove pro to access all downloads and learning resources. Advanced jazz improvisation quartals and pentatonic scales. Download theory supplements, midi files, chord changes and full notefornote transcriptions of every lesson. Its the repeating patterns thing i go on about all the time. Id been working with the bruce saunders approach, similar stuff.
On the title cut, when the band goes to the iv chord on the opening solo, buddy starts out in an upper position of the minor pentatonic, then switches to major pentatonic in a way that anticipates the return to the i chord by a measure. A more advanced approach that comes closer to how great blues guitarists apply chord tone soloing, is to use the d dominant pentatonic scale. Advanced improvising concepts for guitar mel bays private lessons bruce saunders on. Mar 06, 2012 this is one my favorite jazz education videos on youtube the perspective of is that of a brilliant guitarist, but any instrumentalist could use these concepts.
The pentatonic scales are a staple of modern rock, blues and pop music. If you have any questions or comments then feel free to leave them here or on the video. Penta, is latin for five, much like a pentagram has five sides. Bruce saunders is a professor in the guitar department at berklee college of music. They are usually the first scales beginner guitarists learn to play. With new york city as his base since 1988, he has toured europe, south america, australia, japan, and the united states as a band leader and as a sideman. Bruce saunders jazz pentatonics minor7 pentatonic 1 free download as pdf file. Bruce saunders author of jazz pentatonics goodreads. Jazz pentatonics by bruce saunders sheet music plus. In this video, george offers up another great tool for your jazz improvisation toolboxthe pentatonic scale, a great sounding fivenote scale that can be an interesting alternative to the bop scales. For fast, complex songs like giant steps, simplify iiv7i into a single pentatonic scale that works over all 3 chords with no avoid notes. We mention in one of our articles on the site a great resource for jazz guitarists, in the mel bay lessons series, jazz pentatonics by bruce saunders. All i seem to be doing is playing off of my pentatonics. A systemic approach to pentatonic mastery in all 12 keys.
Heres a fun exercise using minor pentatonics and intervals. For your convenience, i have included a pdf of all the pentatonics. This pentatonic pattern is simply going down the pentatonic scale one note at a time. Below is a download link for the pentatonic scale pdf. How to combine the major and minor pentatonic scales.
May 16, 2009 also, mark levines excellent jazz theory books have a great section on pentatonics. If you dont already have it, craig fraedrichs free pdf download scale studies for improvisation is available at. Some players are often complaining about their improvising. Download jazz pentatonics sheet music instantly guitar all sheet music by bruce saunders. For convenience, lets refer to major pentatonic scales and their modesincluding the minor pentatonicas standard pentatonic scales. Similar to the pentagon, which has 5 sides, the pentatonic scale is a 5 note scale which can be used in any key for improvisation. The minor pentatonic scale is a mode of the major pentatonic scale. Soloing with the combined minormajor pentatonic scales by steve stine 26 september 2018 become a more versatile player by learning how to combine the minor and major pentatonic scales. Major pentatonic scale the major pentatonic scale shares five notes with the major scale. The pentatonics are terrific as pedagogical training wheels, but in jazz you really need to learn to exploit the committal notes of tension builders 4 and 7 if you want to say something, to give your melody direction. Just rightclick on the link and choose save as to save it to your computer. Upsidedown scale studies for improvisation upsidedown scale.
The book covers the minor 7, dominant 7, minor 7b5 and major b6 pentatonics and gives the student many etudes and exercises from which. Jazz pentatonics by bruce saunders digital sheet music for. Jun 10, 2016 the minor pentatonic scale is a fairly wellknown scale, and i imagine many of you have used it before. T hat should give you some ideas for smoothing out minor seventh pentatonics. The pdf is for members only, so youll need to login to download it. Pentatonic scales pdf and instructional video guitar alliance. A pentatonic approach to jazz guitar soloing jazz guitar online. There is a very powerful secret in this ebook that most dont know about.
As collections of notes, standard pentatonic scales are all. However it always has that same dark classic minor pentatonic sound. Pentatonic scales are the oldest musical scales in the word. Here, george shows how to play the f minor pentatonic scale. There are a million ways to express your emotions through the minor pentatonic and use it for your soloing. Mel bays advanced jazz guitar improvisation barry greene on. Bruce saunders jazz pentatonics pdf m i n o r s e v e n t h p e n t a t o n i c u s a g e.
This creates a distinctly different sound for the new scale. Ive included a summary below of his main point for reference or if you arent a guitar player and have trouble following what vic is doing. Bruce saunders pentatonics pdf search for happiness. Get his book and find out bruce explains how you can use pentatonics in chromatic ascensions in jazz turnarounds. Often times its thought of in a blues context, which of course the minor pentatonic scale lends itself to quite nicely. Heres what you get when you play all twelve possible minor pentatonic scales over an a root. That said, there are some fun things you can do with pentatonics in jazz that you might not. Hybrid scales how to combine the major and minor pentatonic. Jazz pentatonics is for intermediate to advanced players. Mel bays guitar sessions webzine bruce saunders b9.
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