Too Many Scales

This morning I took another stab at listening to my Jamie Aebersold Scale Syllabus CD and singing along. I really need to develop my scale knowledge and chops, both vocally and on the piano. I was just searching for some inspiration online, and found this in an essay by a guitarist named Jamie Andreas:

"Musically speaking, a scale is simply a series of notes, following one after the other. The really important thing about any scale is the SPACE between the notes, and by space, I mean the space in terms of PITCH. It is the distance in pitch between two notes that contains the EMOTIONAL CONTENT of music. This is one of the most important concepts that any musician can know, and most do know it, if only on an intuitive level."

His advice for practicing is mostly applicable to any musician, though some is guitar-specific. Basically, learn the major scales and relative minors in common keys: C, G, D, A, E. For jazz musicians it seems to me you need a few flat keys too. I wonder if the selection he mentioned has to do with open strings on the guitar? I don't know.

Then learn the pentatonic scale inside and out. But then here's the rub: for "sophisticated styles, such as jazz or fusion," you should learn the more complicated scales. This CD I have has all the modes, plus Lydian augmented, Hindu, pentatonic, whole tone, etc. Well, there you go. I'm back to being overwhelmed.

It's neat when one of these things can get you thinking in new ways, such as an odd meter that leads to a cool song or a whole tone scale that transforms a chorus. I guess the risk is that you get bogged down in the intellectual. But I guess that's not a risk if you don't know your scales!