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Just When You Thought Major Scale Is Boring...


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After watching the first few minutes of the Jonny video where he talks about the simple F to C7sus progression I thought of this performance by Keith Jarrett. He plays that progression in his left hand and improvises in his right. At times he plays beautiful melodies using just the F major scale. At other times he masterfully introduces the notes outside the F major scale (I.e., F# G# B C# D# â a.k.a. the B major pentatonic scale). Anyway I think this performance is a great demonstration of the power of the major scale. The overhead video provides a clear view of the notes he"s playing.

 

[video:youtube]

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ANNOYING (adjective)

Definition: Someone who can do something I can't do and make it look really frickin' easy...as in any two year-old should be able to do it.

 

 

Grey

I'm not interested in someone's ability to program. I'm interested in their ability to compose and play.

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Similar notions to an Alan Holdsworth video I was watching recently.

 

I thought of Holdsworth when I first heard the end of this oboe solo. It's a challenge to play on guitar. Also fun to try to work out on keys and see if it can be done without bringing in the other hand. This forum software does not seem to support Youtube timestamp, so fast forward to 3:40 to hear the phrase I'm talking about.

 

[video:youtube]

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From what I was getting to hang out with old Jazz musicians they would say the problem is using the word Major. That when we heard labels like major our inner Pavlov's dog reacts with pre-determined idea of what we're suppose to do. This applies to other things beside music too. So many of them especially the progressive or avant garde musicians prefer to use the term pitch collection. Which also opens them up to any collection of notes to work with with no preconditioned response.

 

They also for similar reasons don't like the work key. You say this is key of F major and again limit your thinking. So they would say something is in "one flat", a lot can be possibilities from the pitch collection with only one flat. It's all about changing how you look at something. One of the my favorite things I picked up from them is.... There are a lots paths to the same destination.

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Similar notions to an Alan Holdsworth video I was watching recently.

 

From what I was getting to hang out with old Jazz musicians they would say the problem is using the word Major. That when we heard labels like major our inner Pavlov's dog reacts with pre-determined idea of what we're suppose to do. This applies to other things beside music too. So many of them especially the progressive or avant garde musicians prefer to use the term pitch collection. Which also opens them up to any collection of notes to work with with no preconditioned response.

 

They also for similar reasons don't like the work key. You say this is key of F major and again limit your thinking. So they would say something is in "one flat", a lot can be possibilities from the pitch collection with only one flat. It's all about changing how you look at something. One of the my favorite things I picked up from them is.... There are a lots paths to the same destination.

 

Thanks Docbop and Elmer, the quotes above and the Holdsworth video are quite enlightening.

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After watching the first few minutes of the Jonny video where he talks about the simple F to C7sus progression I thought of this performance by Keith Jarrett. He plays that progression in his left hand and improvises in his right. At times he plays beautiful melodies using just the F major scale. At other times he masterfully introduces the notes outside the F major scale (I.e., F# G# B C# D# â a.k.a. the B major pentatonic scale). Anyway I think this performance is a great demonstration of the power of the major scale. The overhead video provides a clear view of the notes he"s playing.

 

Thanks for sharing this excellent composition from Keith, Al. Jonny's video immediately reminded me of Bill Evans' "Peace Piece":

 

[video:youtube]

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