Improv Toolbox for Funky Grooves-Lesson 1-Minor

Description

Improv Toolbox for Funky Grooves is a series of lessons on all the concepts and tools you can use when you  practice  playing along with funky music. This is one my favorite ways to practice because as I am improvising, I am working on varied concepts and tools that allow me to play interesting solos.

In lesson 1, I give you a list of 22 tunes from a iTunes playlist I have that cover 11 minor keys. I do not include these songs because they are copyrighted but if you take a listen to them on iTunes and like this style of music you can download them yourself to practice with. In the playlist I also include the blues scales that work over each song in concert key.In this lesson, we start with the basics of knowing the keys and blues scales that go with a song. I talk about resolutions as well as practicing the blues scale to these grooves in a melodic way. I also talk about the importance of rhythmic variation and articulation while improvising.

I demonstrate all the concepts on the soprano sax with a variety of drum and guitar loops so you can hear the concepts I am teaching about. Future lessons in the series will deal with adding other elements and tools to the funky tracks like bebop scales, approach note lines, pentatonics, altered scales, triad pairs, chromatic lines and other improvisational concepts. I think you will get a lot out of this series of lessons. (33 Minute Video Lesson, PDF Playlist of Funky Grooves in 11 Minor Keys)