#altered scale

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The Pentatonic scale is one of the first things we learn. And since it is something we are very familiar with and we can use this to change it a bit and use it for other chord sounds like Altered Dominants or other melodic minor sounds. In this lesson I am going to show you a simple way to make a great pentatonic scale for altered chords and demonstrate how to learn and how to use it.

Hope you like it!

That’s it the new PDFeBook is online. Package details :1 printable PDF eBook with 25 II-V7alt-I jazz guitar lines with tabs, scales charts and guitar fretboard diagrams.1 II-V7alt-I jazz backing track (MP3 audio file, 320 kbps, length, about 10 mn)25 audio files (MP3 audio file, 320 kbps) to listen to each lick. You can download it here http://www.jazz-guitar-licks.com/pages/e-books/mastering-the-altered-scale-ebook-pdf-method-25-ii-valt7-i-jazz-guitar-licks.html

Hope you like it!

He recently released a couple of instructional videos, too, through JazzHeaven.com and launched a contest in support of the release.  Up for grabs is a private lesson with Oz!  To enter, guitarists record themselves trading choruses with him over a blues in G7, using specific scales that he outlines from pentatonics to altered modes.  I spent hour 35 - 38 working through some whole tone, diminished and altered ideas before recording the video above.  The video with the most "likes" on YouTube by midnight tonight wins! 

Anytime I begin incorporating a new musical concept into my playing (like all of the altered scale stuff I've been shedding), I start with a blues.  "Groove Elation" by John Scofield is one of my faves.  It's in Eb.  To spice things up a bit, I thought about playing Eb alt to the four chord, Bb alt to one, and sometimes, F alt to the five, in addition to my regular blues lines.  This video was recorded at the legendary New Morning in Paris, France.  The band sounds stellar!

I love the way the altered scale (R-b9-#9-3-b5-#5-b7) sounds, although it's always been a challenge for me to incorporate it into my playing in a seamless and interesting way.  I followed Krantz's orders (see the Improviser's OS below), shedding the scale along the fingerboard through what he describes as the "twelve zones".  With the metronome set to 80 bpm, I practised playing the scale in quarters, eighths, triplets and sixteenths to get it under my fingers, before freestyling for a while.  Then I worked through all 12 keys.  The freestyling part of this exercise through all of the zones could easily be a lifelong study promoting creativity and personal expression.