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You are here: Home / Jazz Lessons / Blues Scales / Using the Blues Scale Part 1

Using the Blues Scale Part 1

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

$9.99

SKU: 156 Category: Blues Scales Tags: blues scale, dominant chords, minor chords, steve neff
  • Description
  • Reviews (3)
  • Lesson Sample

Description

Using the Blues Scale-Part 1.  I always tell my students that all they need to know to get a gig is their blues scales.  They always think I’m joking and that there is no way it can be that easy but the truth is that 90-95% of today’s songs are in one key.  The band vamps and plays the same groove and key for the whole song.  The person that can stand up and play an authortative solo using the blues scale is the one who will get the gig.   Unfortunately, most of the young players today don’t really know their blues scales like they should.  Sure, they all say that they do but then when I have them play a solo using one it is usually dead, lifeless and uncreative.  The problem is that most young people today are given advice to use a blues scale on this solo or that solo but then no one ever shows them how to use it.  They are just given the scale and told to improvise.

In this lesson I take on the job of showing you exactly how to use each note of the blues scale over major,minor and dominant grooves. In Part 1, I talk in depth about how to use the blues scale over dominant chords and major 7th chords.   I teach about each individual note of the scale and how it relates to the chord behind it.  I also talk in depth about what I feel are the tendencies of each note and tactics that I use when playing the blues scale over static backgrounds and chords.  Part 1 is mainly focused on using the A blues scale over a C7 chord as well as the added notes of Bb and F.  I demonstrate all of these sounds on the tenor sax with a background track playing behind me so you can hear how these ideas sound to the music.  Listen to these 3 lesson on the blues scale, practice like crazy and I’ll see you out there on a gig one of these days!  Enjoy! (31 minute video lesson)

3 reviews for Using the Blues Scale Part 1

  1. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Sam K (verified owner) – August 24, 2009

    I really enjoyed your lesson on the blues. I have never heard of using the 6th degree blues over the 1st degree blues. Ex: E over G blues. It is smoother sounding and when using the combination of both blues scales, it has given me so much more flexibility, ideas, and options while soloing over the blues changes. Over time I would like to purchase your entire collection!
    Thanks a million!!

  2. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    Anar (verified owner) – January 22, 2010

    This single lesson has improved my playing more than anything I have ever learned. I feel like I’ve had a revelation. I was shown the blues scale years ago but now I feel like I can actually hear it and know how to use it in soloing. Steve does a fantastic job of breaking down every note of the blues scale and explaining the character of each tone and based on this how to use each tone to good effect in solos. To my amazement, all of a sudden I can play lines which sound good! I have had several teachers, but none have taken this approach to explaining the blues, and I cannot understand why. I fully recommend this lesson to anyone who’d like to learn to play the blues!

  3. Avatar
    Rated 5 out of 5

    James (verified owner) – March 26, 2011

    I am trying to broaden my blues vocabulary so that I have more ideas to draw from on jazz blues and r&b tunes. This lesson, the first video lesson I bought, was extremely clear and helpful, and will forever change the way I play music. Steve dissects the scale note by note, and provides a handy cheat sheet with blues scales written out in every key. After this lesson I spent the next two hours digging into All Blues, Blue Monk, and Cousin Mary and could feel all kinds of new melodic paths through the scale.

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Lesson Sample

https://public.neffmusic.com/Using%20the%20Blues%20Scale%20Part%201%20(Video)%20clip.mp4

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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
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After reading your story I will never feel quite right about complaining about any of my MINOR health issues!!    God bless Steve and I really hope that your health doesn’t stop you from fulfilling your calling.    These books have been such a help to open up my jazz vocabulary…   Thanks so much for sharing your story and for providing these great teaching tools…   John Leclerc   Saxophonist / composer/ EWI player and professional working musician of 35 years….

John Leclerc
I’m an experienced player in the pop/soul/funk areas of music and, previously, classical.  Over the decades I’ve been playing, I’ve always felt that I could do what I needed in those styles of music.  However, recently I began to feel limited by my use of the same old licks. When I discovered Steve Neff’s website, and heard the audio examples based on the exercises in his books, I realized they were what I needed.  I purchased all of them and have been working on them since.  It’s very hard work… Read more
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