Lick / Idea of the Week

The Two Scale Approach

The "two scale approach" was talked about during the latest interview with Tom Scott.

A lot of these guys are looking for a simple way to have fun playing on smooth jazz recordings. Either they are making their own or they are just playing along with existing recordings. All this is leading up to the question.

Several years ago a keyboard player and former trombone player hipped me to this “two scale approach.” It’s pretty simple actually. You just play the blues scale starting on the root of the key or its relative minor. For example: If C is the tonal center you would either play C Blues or A Blues. Your ear will decide which works better. It’s a great way to sound like you know what you’re doing, even if your ears are not well developed for hearing changes.

There’s a plethora of reasons why one would work better than another on a C7, Cmaj7, Cmi7, Csus or whatever… I’m talking about someone who doesn’t have a grasp of all that theory yet.

When I listen to “smooth jazz” recordings made today and many of the contemporary jazz recordings of the past – again and again I’m hearing one of these two blues scales being used.

Much of the R&B, Pop and Smooth Jazz stuff I’ve transcribed over the years is filled with nothing but pentatonic and blues scales... [For example] recently I transcribed a Richard Elliot tune that was 4 minutes of music based on a blues scale. I enjoyed listening to the tune and writing out all the ornaments and inflections that made it unique. Melodically, whether written or improvised he utilized virtually nothing but the notes in a blues scale.

Read more about this idea, including Tom Scott's thoughts, in the interview with Tom Scott.