What Are These Sounds?
At this point I would like to bring in some music theory. Theory is really just a way of explaining sounds. It is always easier to play what you hear in your mind, or learn licks from your favourite players if you have a way of identifying the notes you are hearing. So far all the licks in this book have been based on the A minor pentatonic scale. Now we are going to look at ways of identifying notes within a scale.
Here is a Major scale, which is the basic scale that all other scale types can be compared with. This example is in the key of C, which contains all seven natural notes but no sharps or flats. The numbers here represent the degrees of the scale.
This variation is the natural minor scale. Notice that the 3rd, 6th and 7th degrees are flattened. The purpose of this is to get a "minor" rather than a "major" sound.
To make a C minor pentatonic scale you just leave out the 2nd and 6th degrees of the natural minor scale. That leaves you with this:
Now let us transpose these scales to the key of A, since our solos and the forms we have done are in A at the moment. Here are these three scales in the E form in the key of A, with the scale degrees marked. Notice the similarity in fingering between the natural minor and the pentatonic. Also that the root notes are in the same place in every type of scale.
The next thing to do is to memorize these scale degrees in all 5 forms. The best way to do this is to say, (or even better, sing) the scale degree numbers as you play them. Once you are comfortable with the scale degrees, try analysing some licks to see which notes they are using. Every player will have their own favorite sounds and note sequences. Make a habit of analysing everything you learn and the knowledge will help your playing develop faster.
Here is one of the licks from lesson 9, with the scale degrees written under the notes.
There is also a great ear training exercise you can do to learn any scale properly. Get a tape recorder and play your pentatonic scale onto it. Then play just the root note. Next, play any note of the scale. Leave a space on the tape and then say what degree it was. Repeat the process over and over till you have so many you cannot remember what they all were. Now you are ready to rewind the tape and start the exercise.
When you hear the first note, sing the degree you think it is, and wait for the answer to come back to you. Then sing the next one, and so on.
When you make the tape it is a good idea to go back to the root note fairly often, because you are trying to relate all the other degrees back to 1 (R). Do the exercise in free time at first, then use a metronome.
