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Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

Rated 5.00 out of 5 based on 1 customer rating
(3 customer reviews)

$9.99

Categories: Modern Improv, The Blues Tags: blues, diminished scale, modern improvisation, video lessons
  • Description
  • Reviews (3)
  • Lesson Sample

Description

Diminished Blues Workout Lesson 1 is a series of lessons to thoroughly teach you how to use the diminished scale effectively over dominant chords and diminished 7th chords. Instead of just talking about how to use the diminished scale we are actually applying it to a standard 12 bar blues and using this form to master it’s use and application. This is a great lesson series if you know your diminished scales but have always been shaky on where and when to use them.

In lesson 1, I demonstrate where in a D blues to use these scales and then show you how to construct them and think of them while you are improvising. The goal of this lesson series is for you to integrate these cool sounding scales and patterns into your existing improvisational vocabulary in a way that sounds authentic and convincing. Walk through this series with me and you will never be hesitant about where and how you can use the diminished scale again! (36 Minute Video Lesson, Diminished Blues Workout Lesson 1 PDF in C.Bb and Eb)

3 reviews for Diminished Blues Workout-Lesson 1

  1. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Ron – November 12, 2015

    Hello Mr. Neff,
    just purchased your Diminished blues‏ workout lesson, LOVE IT!!
    Thanks
    and keep up the great work!!!!

  2. Avatar

    Dietmar (verified owner) – May 20, 2016

    Hi Steve, i purchased this lesson recently and i like the practical hints you give here.
    I am a Hobby saxophone Player. I try to incorporate Vb9 and dim chords into my blues
    playing. Unfortunately i suffer mostly when i try to use These scales together with Blues playalongs because it is so difficult for me to time These scales correctly into the corresponding beat. To say it simple i loose control during improvisation and often miss the beat where to apply the dim scale or Vb9 scale. this is much more a Problem for me compared to noodling pentatonic or blues scales all over 12 beats. 🙂

    • Steve

      Steve (verified owner) – May 27, 2016

      Hi Dietmar,
      It sounds like you need to do more practicing with lines of a certain length. For example practice just playing one measure of eight note diminished line resolving to beat one of the next measure. Do that over and over again until you don’t have to count but are feeling it. Then try a 2 measure lines resolving to beat 1 of measure 3. Once you have the 2 measure feel down it’s a lot easier to think of a blues as 6 sets of 2 bar lines or 3 sets of 4 bar lines. The key is getting to the point that you feel it. If you have to count then you are not there yet. Steve

  3. Avatar

    Dietmar floegel (verified owner) – May 27, 2016

    Thank you very much. Yes, often things are so simple and thinking complicated makes it too difficult to proceed 🙂

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Thank you for all the educational information you provide.  I am a classically trained musician.  Professionally, I am a 4th and 5th grade band teacher.  I have played piano and sax for many years, but now I am starting to gig out more. I have always improvised by ear in the past. I have gotten by with my strong sense of pitch, rhythm and melodic contour. However, I want to go deeper. I want to play with a greater variety of melodic and rhythmic ideas to pull from.  I have studied to gain a … Read more
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Your material is great! I got your New Altissimo Lesson 6 months ago and I have learned more from that than in all my 44 years of playing! I appreciate your down to earth teaching method and I really appreciate the heart that you teach with. I have been a subscriber to your lessons for the past 6 months and I have learned a great deal. Over that period of time I have had some questions and you have never failed to respond. Thanks! I have already recommended your lessons to a number of players in… Read more

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It is so refreshing to have a great player, who can provide lessons and examples in a manner which is understandable to most any enthusiastic saxophonist who is ready to improve. not just the, do this, do that, memorize this, memorize that… while all that is absolutely necessary, you go on to give reasons and examples to explain and validate why you have to do all of these things, the benefits, if you will… that is the key for me, you tell, explain, demonstrate, explain some more, you give perso… Read more
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I must say again how much I appreciate all your material. Including the video tutorials. It help keep me focused and knowing what to aim for. And your laid back teaching style appeals to me too. 

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I’ve been a member of Steve’s site for about six months now and the difference it has made to my playing is immeasurable. The (many) benefits of this membership are that you can have lessons at time convenient to you, they work out A LOT cheaper than face-to-face lessons with a teacher of the same calibre and you can replay them ad infinitum. I don’t know how many times have I had lessons in the past where I’ve ended up covering the same concepts when really a ‘replay’ of the last lesson would h… Read more
Nick
I can’t say enough about my membership at Neff Music. Steve has taken the mystery out of playing the saxophone well and improvising both jazz and rock music. Like most struggling players I have a load of all sorts of books on my shelf just gathering dust. Books that I didn’t understand or know how to put to use…or just have the time to go threw them. Steve’s lessons really simplify things and he puts it in a way that I can understand. They inspire me to keep pushing and having him as my guide or… Read more
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Just to say thanks for your advice and lessons.  I’ve just read your amazing story.  I really appreciate what you do in regards to teaching.  I have bought a couple of your lessons and frankly they’re undersold.   I’ve learned much more with these two lessons than with 2 years of sax teachers.   Thanks so much………..
Mike
Your lessons on playing the blues is so clear . I have been through many books on blues playing and not one of them explains as clear as your lessons . Most of them say “Play the same blues scale over all three chords of a 12 bar blues ” Its very misleading .     Thanks
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I bought Steve’s dominant bebop book and took a couple of online lesson from him. I really appreciated Steve’s careful listening of what I wanted to get done in a lesson and his clear, concise ideas on next steps to improve my playing and musical interpretation.  His mastering  the Dominant Bebop Scale has lots of exercises to use a scale that addresses the largest percentage of chords I come across in pop/blues music. The dominant V7.  Needless say it has improved my playing.  I teach and a… Read more
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