STOP Practicing Scales - Do THIS Instead

[@jameseason8206]

Those of us of a certain generation were fed the gospel of scales, so-called chordscales, Aebersold scales, pentatonics, and modes. It took me a long time break the spell. That, and the sunk cost fallacy of my Berklee tuition

[@bettersax]

yeah, with you there.

[@rodrisribeiro6856]

Greetings from a Brazilian who loves the sound of Scott Hamilton. A great saxophonist with a powerful sound and a great example of an improviser who creates easily singable melodic lines.

[@davidwood351]

Speaking of Scott Hamilton, I’d love to see Jay interview him!

[@davidclaro152]

That sounds very BOSS! Thank you so much!

[@Craig2760]

Thanks for using Scott Hamilton as an example.

[@bettersax]

yeah, he's a great player

[@sgsax]

I didn't have much in the way of formal jazz education, but I was taught that learning scales is how you get the notes under your fingers. Once they are there, then you will be able to use them better. I appreciate what you're saying here, that scales are good, but they're not everything. Also, thanks for highlighting Scott Hamilton here. Getting to see him live in my early high school years was a big influence in picking up tenor myself. He's still one of my all-time favorites.

[@CarlKing-h6d]

Jay you have single handedly demystified the jazz language. Thank you.

[@Craig2760]

David Baker and Jerry Coker did it decades ago. No disrespect meant to Jay. He’s just introducing it to a new generation.

[@EricPalmerBlog]

That September in the Rain was beautiful. Been back a year after a 43 pause where I played 7 years. Fully conversant and capable on my majors and all minors. Had a tone of fun learning the funny named 7 modes.... and can read the definition of some basic cords. Still learning the cord definitions of which there are many. This will take some time. Again though, fun. Great advice as always Jay. Enjoyed this path advice of yours. Have a great day.

[@robm667]

Yes!, thanks for using Hamilton's solo as an example. It is so melodic, rhythmically well-punctuated. Your distinction between chord tones and "embellishments" is very helpful. Hamilton's use of Ab and A in the first C7 is a beautiful surprise, sonically and analytically. It's almost like he won't let you decide if he's going to play Aflat or Am to start, and since he's on C7 the playing the A after Aflat make sense sonically and analytically, because wait, it's C7. Still learning to spell chords fluently, using backing tracks. I was heading to Dorian scales, with focus on 1,3,5,7, and with Dorian playing scale runs and thirds. Accidentally, with this direction, I began to sense sonically what you mean by embellishments (4ths, 2nds, 6ths), finding for my ear to carefully avoid them isolated (end of a phrase or emphasis point). I can see now that embellishments, including chromatic, sound good at the beginning of clearly spelled chord, like the first C7.

[@mitchbedel8372]

This is incredible. Absolutely incredible. I don't know if I'll ever be this smart -- wow!

[@philliphill3390]

Never mind, Jay, I found the Jazz melodic minor scale: Minor lower tetrachord up and down, Major upper tetrachord up and down. never mind my previous text below. Immediately working on this new minor scale in the various keys. Thanks for the chord (arpeggio) tip.

[@ronhowe5933]

Absolutely Jay, top guidance ... get familiar with your scales and then learn to arpeggiate. I always tell students to work through rock and roll style arpeggios in a I-IV-V pattern and at the same time start learning to pick off pentatonic scales (minor and major). Otherwise I always recommend arpeggiating by ear over the chord charts to the songs they're going to be playing. It all builds into good technique. They'll discover the blue tones for themselves and how to melodically introduce passing tones. That’s the way I was taught some 45 years ago … just back off too much theory and get blowing!

[@constandinr8260]

Well said Jay. People here should " transcribe"what u said about the 5 first bars of the solo. It requires a mature level of understanding and not ego to know at the end that jazz impro is a vocabulary and you need to speak with the masters.

[@jdrosborough]

Great video, great lesson. Really digging Scott’s tone, too!

[@haroldlloyd8621]

Scott Hamilton! The Guy!

[@twindaddy01]

I am definitely going to try and shoot for buying this!!! I’ve been looking for a Bari for so long and need something that is great at playing and in a reasonable price range

[@donguiddodilozzo1906]

Scott is great absolutely, discovered him working with joan Chamoro and the San Andreu Jazz band. Amazing stuff with talented students. Great stuff believe me go see. But this lesson I just love !!! Wow, as I hate scales like the plague, this sound so much more interesting to work at and valorizing! Thanks Better Sax !!!

[@ejfarfan7411]

Thank you so much this help so much 😊

[@bettersax]

Glad it helped!

[@onichimmy]

Thank you!

[@eladgellert]

Thanks for the video it’s really important! By the way what notation software do you use?

[@bettersax]

Sibelius

[@robertpayne5233]

Knowing chords by heart is a basic must for sure. The next step is learning how to handle them. It's about learning to play with logic.

[@makmak-cb8fw]

Scott Hamilton is so underrated!

[@SStone-dm7es]

Great analysis, Jay… almost all notes derived from F major blues scale too🎵

[@MichaIsraelKovler]

Hi Jay There is a certain fuzziness added to your recent video. Did you change camera? We prefer the sharp look... Thanks for all the great content!

[@MrZnipez]

Do u know any exercises for improving tonguing speed and tongue to finger coordination

[@BriteFanMirrur]

Me who hate scale BET also I just being playing saxophone in August and your video have helped me :D

[@27pablosax]

How do you record the ae-20 through the daw? Any specific connections?

[@philliphill3390]

I'm a retired US Army band clarinetist. I love the old jazz/swing style. We were required to know all our major, natural minor, melodic minor and harmonic minor scales. Please, if you would, define for me a "Jazz" melodic minor. By the way, I am familiar with and love the song September in the Rain. But in Hamilton's rendition I didn't hear one inkling of a melody from the song at all. My training entailed 1) establish the melody, 2) increase improvisation for each verse. 3) bring the improvs back down to the recognizeable melody and finish. Just sayin'. Thank you for this all important video, I'll revamp my practice routine.

[@Invisible_Hermit]

Hi Jay. I have a question for you that I'm hoping you can clear up for me. I'm a 60 year old beginning saxophone player, having started around a year ago. In your "Pentatonics Foundations" course, which I just recently started, you emphasize playing by ear, and not relying on the sheet music. Yet, in lessons like this one, and many others, your instructions require a solid ability to sight read and understand a good amount of music theory. Now, since I'm also studying piano and flute along with saxophone, sight reading and music theory have been imperative. So, wanting to understand you correctly, is it a matter of sight reading still being very important, but we should ALSO be able to play by ear as much as possible? If you could please clarify this for me, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks Jay for all you do on behalf of sax players everywhere!!!

[@bettersax]

Yes, you have it right. We want to be able to read sheet music but also play music without having to read it. If you want to learn to improvise it is absolutely essential to learn to rely on your ears.

[@hujbertus]

Hi, could You, some day, make a video about The Bold and The Beautyful intro taken from High Upon This Love by Alloco and Kurtz? What does happened here in first few seconds, and why is it so, I think, nice? Correct me if I'm wrong. Why no one remembers this jazz piece in the context of saxophones? - or doesn't want to remember, and why?

[@saxman7131]

I heard a somewhere over the rainbow reference in there. The bridge that is.

[@ffdrk90]

Jay when will you releasing the bettersax baritone? Should I wait or hunt for a secondhand YBS31/32.... in dilemma

[@awildandcrazyguy1]

Great video Jay. I was looking at a doc that I downloaded from the Better Sax website and have a question.. On page 3 of 7 on 12_scales_in_all_keys_bettersax, You show a Low A. Is this only for a Bari since I play Tenor and have no Low A. Am I missing something??

[@bettersax]

You can play that one up the octave.

[@et897]

Hey Jay when are you interviewing Cannonball?

[@kwootamuckbear9294]

☮️🎵🎶🎵🎷

[@Simon-Sax]

I seem to be learning about the existence of new kinds of scales every dam day. So theres a Jazz melodic minor? So you mean to tell me the only difference between the melodic minor and Jazz melodic minor is the 6 &7ths in the Jazz melodic; descending, is not not lowered? As a saxophone player and not pianist its hars to understand why such a difference exist, but I would assume that it is due to the nature of the chords themselves. Pianist and melodic percussionist, and string are so lucky they can all vertically play all the notes at the same time... Whereas the rest of us can only sort of here horizontally. Pretty wild

[@abrahamben-zeev9142]

Scales are ESSENTIAL for being a musician. What is your point?

[@bettersax]

The point is in the video if you watch it.

[@flrn84791]

Yes, maybe the title is missing "once you know your scales"... 🙃

[@bettersax]

Literally the first words I say in the first 2 seconds though.

[@flrn84791]

And yet you leave it out to make the video more clickbaity. Typical 🤷‍♂️

[@SaxLex1]

If you don't memorize all the jazz hal Leonard big band sax parts and play good solos over that, you aren't musician. The big band is the best, the friends the sound the feel you can see the energy of the universe with a green shape in the light of the god Charlie Parker 😂 lol

[@BenG-vf7et]

This is unrelated to the video. I see a lot of “amazing” sax videos that feature saxes with reverb, doubling and other electronic effects. In my opinion, it cheapens the hard work the rest of us do for a good tone and makes the natural sax sound less exciting to the general public. I prefer hard work over effects. Your thoughts?

[@NickTelfer]

Forget all this shit. Just play what comes into head.

[@David_Drums]

I know that some people may not agree on what it means to have learned or know a scale. Could you expand on what you mean by "know the scale"? My assumption would be someone says a scale and the musician can play said scale up and down without reference and minimal thought. Curious to see what you and your comminity think. 😁

[@bettersax]

To know a scale, you need to be able to spell all the notes in that scale out. That’s the mental side. you also need to be able to execute it with technical proficiency on your instrument over the entire range and from any starting note.

[@gib321]

That's how I practiced scales for years- up and down. But that's not enough. It has to be up and down and inside out. Up in thirds and fourths, arpeggios and all sorts of patterns and modes and knowing how the modes and extensions relate to a given chord. The hard yards and the hours of practice will yield a result. That's my two cents worth on knowing a scale. Charlie Parker said learn it and then forget it. It's just getting to the point where you can forget it.

[@David_Drums]

@@bettersax thanks for taking the time to respond! I help with a local band and love learning how other instruments approach music to see how things are done and what can be applied in my own music journey.

[@nilsfeldmann7996]

This is great advice, BUT... the wrong example. The first 4 bars are very much a scale. Blues scale... That doesn't take anything away from the intend of the video. Still a bit funny

[@jameshammond3853]

Nope

[@normalizedaudio2481]

You freshmen better know all your scales. If you don't know them, we will make your life a living hell and give you bad grades. You got to have them full range. Make sure you can do it in all keys.