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Forums :: Ask Instructor David Barrett

Scales and Learning

1 reply [Last post]
Sat, 04/10/2010 - 15:54
jjudson
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Joined: 12/23/2009

David,

I've been going through the Jason Ricci interview and I'm intrigued with his discussion on scales. In other music study I've done on other instruments in the past, scales represented a good part of that education. Many of the classical masters of composing based their entire works on the variations of scales. Understanding that Jason comes from a more rock background than blues, do you agree with him that incorporating scale study when learning harmonica is an important method of developing an improvising mindset? If so, do you have plans to put up scale study on this site?

While I love blues, I lean more toward rock, and will likely take that route once I get my skill set developed. As the roots of both are very similar, rock can pull from many other disciplines and still fit the "genre". Are there certain areas of study that make more sense when taking that fork rather than the traditional blues method?

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Sat, 04/10/2010 - 20:08
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David Barrett
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ExpertHead InstructorTeacher 10Level 10
Joined: 12/20/2009
Answer

Scales can be valuable, but mostly after you have some vocabulary in your bag (you've studied a number of songs and can improvise a bit). Once this happens, then your scales have some context.

The two most important scales are the Major Pentatonic Scale and Blues Scale. The notes of these scales are embodied in your study songs, but I do plan on doing some lessons on scales down the road.

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