My scale routine: one mode for every day of the week

[sch]

I am pretty fluent in modes of natural scale, however modes of harmonic and melodic minor were pretty hard and unfamiliar for me.

So I've made this table and I practice one scale every weekday. Now working on scales is fun and I even look forward to it.

How do I practice?
1) I figure out the scale using CAGED and apply alterations where needed
2) I play the scale outlining chord tones and memorizing the sound of the scale and individual steps,
3) I play phrases using the scale and improvise

What scales and modes would you add to the table?

[Jimmy Smith]

That's cool! Do you use them? I don't like to tie up practice time running stuff that I won't realistically be able to use in my playing. I do use a lot of scales, just not every mode that you listed. I have command of all the regular modes, use some more than others. I use the melodic minor modes except dorian b2 and lydian #5. And I use all of the misc ones. I don't care much for the harmonic minor modes.

[Litterick]

This week I have mostly been practising the Scottish pentatonic scale.*

*Annie G. Gilchrist. “Note on the Modal System of Gaelic Tunes.” Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol 4, no. 16 (1911): 150–53.

[Christian Miller]

I’d focus purely on Ionian/mixolydian and melodic minor at first. These two can be applied to almost everything. Don’t worry about modes, just make sure you have enough flexibility so you can start and finish on any note, not just the 1.

Its much better to know one or two scales incredibly well and be able to apply them everywhere than half know hundreds.

The application takes a lot of practice and working with tunes, but that’s another area.

it’s good to practice scales in intervals. I would suggest

steps
thirds
triads
Seventh chords and larger

once that’s done do the other intervals

I like working in one octave cells better than positions. You want to be able to play a scale from the lowest note to the highest on the guitar and back again without a break in any of these patterns.

you can get a long way just doing 15m of this stuff a day.

[Christian Miller]

That's cool! Do you use them? I don't like to tie up practice time running stuff that I won't realistically be able to use in my playing. I do use a lot of scales, just not every mode that you listed. I have command of all the regular modes, use some more than others. I use the melodic minor modes except dorian b2 and lydian #5. And I use all of the misc ones. I don't care much for the harmonic minor modes.

dorian b2 is a great mode on dominant. Don’t sleep on it! (E.g. F melodic minor on G7 making G13sus4b9 - very bebop.)

Actually Lydian augmented is great on dominant too. Thats one way get the wonderful B/G —> C cadence.

[sch]

Do you use them?

Actually, right now I'm a very diatonic player, but I'm striving for me. At least those modes can be an addition to otherwise diatonic tunes.

[Jimmy Smith]

^ Instead of running every scale, I would practice major and minor 2-5-1s and choose 1 scale or idea at a time that can introduce chromaticism. For example, on a major 2-5-1, simple lydian dominant on the 5 chord. Then move to 2 or 3 chromatic ideas, for example on a minor 2-5-1 play locrian #2 to altered to melodic minor. Imo, it's all about what you can integrate into your playing.

dorian b2 is a great mode on dominant. Don’t sleep on it! (E.g. F melodic minor on G7 making G13sus4b9 - very bebop.)

Actually Lydian augmented is great on dominant too. Thats one way get the wonderful B/G —> C cadence.

I will try it!

[Christian Miller]

^ Instead of running every scale, I would practice major and minor 2-5-1s and choose 1 scale or idea at a time that can introduce chromaticism. For example, on a major 2-5-1, simple lydian dominant on the 5 chord. Then move to 2 or 3 chromatic ideas, for example on a minor 2-5-1 play locrian #2 to altered to melodic minor. Imo, it's all about what you can integrate into your playing.

[FONT=&amp]I will try it!

Yeah they are sleepers because they don’t match up with the chord ‘correctly’, but they sound great. Really dominants are very open….

[Christian Miller]

BTW I always say this, but I wish I’d known this ad a beginner - if you are playing three scales on a minor ii V I by default you are doing too much ….

In fact minor ii V I playing in bop is often just diatonic to the natural and harmonic minors especially that classic leap from The 3rd of the V to the b9 and the run down… (comes out of Bach)

You can then introduce the melodic minor sounds from there. Altered in the minor key - that b5 is very bop. The locrian #2 reminds me of Bill Evans more.

There are other sounds too… V mixolydian into I minor (very common with Charlie Christian and bop musicians up to Wes and Cannonball.

Also V13b9 (dominant diminished) into Im is super hip… need to practice those more lol.

[Jimmy Smith]

^ I can't really find a scale I like that fits over the minor 2-5-1. The most bare bones approach I would say I do is locrian (thinking major a half step up), to mix or mix b6 (melodic minor of the i), to melodic minor. I can kind of noodle in the key intuitively but I don't really have a scale I like to run over the whole thing.

Yeah they are sleepers because they don’t match up with the chord ‘correctly’, but they sound great. Really dominants are very open….

I like that sound a lot. Bebop chromaticism seems like it isn't necessarily about what is the most spiky. It has like an understated beauty to it demonstrated by tonalities like that dorian b2 or mix b6 over a dominant chord. My first grasp of chromaticism was spiky tonalities like Monk's use of whole tone, altered, and dim. Now I'm learning these more understated sounds and I think they're really pretty.

[Christian Miller]

^ I can't really find a scale I like that fits over the minor 2-5-1. The most bare bones approach I would say I do is locrian (thinking major a half step up), to mix or mix b6 (melodic minor of the i), to melodic minor. I can kind of noodle in the key intuitively but I don't really have a scale I like to run over the whole thing

well one thing that I think is important to know about using scales is how to use scales to describe changes. Bach is a good model here as are the boppers. This is different from using chord scales to create extended sounds on chords, this is more like using scale tones as filler between chord tones.

For instance you’ll notice bop players frequently emphasise the 3rd and b9 over the V chord using the harmonic minor - so really emphasising the F and G# on an E7 using the A harmonic minor for example. But you won’t find Bach or Parker playing the F and G# in the same octave, they usually leap from a low G# to a high F and then running down the scale to the third. Grant Green does this loads for instance. This stuff is all idiom, best discovered IMO by transcription of the music.

a lot of people seem to noodle around in scales as if all the notes are equal. That’s not true even if you are using chord scales. That’s one reason why it maybe best to start with mapping the chord tones before trying to use scale notes.

I like that sound a lot. Bebop chromaticism seems like it isn't necessarily about what is the most spiky. It has like an understated beauty to it demonstrated by tonalities like that dorian b2 or mix b6 over a dominant chord. My first grasp of chromaticism was spiky tonalities like Monk's use of whole tone, altered, and dim. Now I'm learning these more understated sounds and I think they're really pretty.

Yeah a lot of bop is very smooth …. There’s something very smooth about using Fmelodic on G7; sophisticated

[grahambop]

^ I can't really find a scale I like that fits over the minor 2-5-1. The most bare bones approach I would say I do is locrian (thinking major a half step up), to mix or mix b6 (melodic minor of the i), to melodic minor. I can kind of noodle in the key intuitively but I don't really have a scale I like to run over the whole thing.

Barry Harris has a scale and lines for that:

[Jimmy Smith]

@ Christian's post #11 and the demonstration in grahambop's clip: that's the way I view it. A mix of chord tone target notes and scales that can be used to summarize the key or sometimes a chord scale to outline 1 or 2 of the chords. But I don't really have an approach or want to approach it as just running 1 scale over the whole thing. I think it sounds better the 1st way.

The clip is interesting. Because G mix over an A- 2-5-1 is technically all diatonic - A aeolian. But treating it as a chord does result in a cool sound as well as simplify things and cover the changes.

[Christian Miller]

@ Christian's post #11 and the demonstration in grahambop's clip: that's the way I view it. A mix of chord tone target notes and scales that can be used to summarize the key or sometimes a chord scale to outline 1 or 2 of the chords. But I don't really have an approach or want to approach it as just running 1 scale over the whole thing. I think it sounds better the 1st way.

Well my approach has always been to listen to the music I like and see what they do, because they sound good to me. Actually that’s not true; but that’s when I made the biggest leaps in my playing. So yeah I was a student of Barry too, and my attraction to his approach is it seemed reflect what was coming up in my transcripts.

Boppers by default I would say use diatonic options much more than you would think from jazz theory books.

So, I would argue if you can’t make the simple stuff sound hip, it’s good to learn how to. the mixolydian mode used in the way Barry demonstrates contains around 75-80% of all the bop language you will ever need, with a few judicious chromatic notes here and there. Add in tritone subs for special flavour, and voila. Bop is not in the harmony; that’s post bop. Bop is in the perfect line. I think that’s its real value to the student.

This minor ii V I approach is very clever. It might seem a bit extra at first to play the bVII7 as well as the Im scale, but aside from what you noted about the change of emphasis within the single scale (important) it also has the benefit of allowing you to play all of your major key dominant/mixolydian language in a minor context.

If you have major key dominant bop language then this is incredibly useful. Another principle; minimum material maximum application.