the benefits of playing freely-and-slowly: [[ iou – After writing this, I changed "slow playing" to "free playing" or "free-and-slow playing", as explained in a section about the benefits of free playing and playing along with each offering different kinds of experience and different kinds of learning. Eventually I'll revise all sections, including this one, that use the old terms. ]] During your improvising — whether you're thinking “classical” or “blues” or “jazz” or “rock” or “ ? ” or you're using another type of strategy (e.g. with imagery for thinking-and-feeling)* to stimulate creativity — you may find (as I have) that slow experimenting often is productive. Your slow playing can help you break out of familiar habit-ruts, because you have more time to intentionally try unfamiliar sequences-of-notes (by playing-with-thinking and also playing-without-thinking, because both ways to play can be productive) so you're using the notes in new ways, and this makes it more likely that you'll discover new ways to make music. And playing slowly can help you convert your understanding (of theory-principles) into your playing (with theory-principles). But you shouldn't play only slowly, instead alternate between slower playing and faster playing, perhaps while using a metronome (or a backing track) that motivates you to make quick improv-decisions so your playing stays on-tempo and in-rhythm.
* You can use imagery by “thinking ” where " " is your imagery when you "play by thinking-and-feeling (for yourself) and/or communicating (for others) your musically-metaphorical ‘imagery’ for the atmosphere-character-flavor-mood of the music, for the ways you're thinking & feeling.
links & ideas: You can learn more – and improve more – by alternating between playing slow and fast, by thinking and not-thinking, while seeking new adventures, and aiming for high quality of learning and/or performing. There are connections between improvising and composing when we view the skill of composing as slow-motion improvising with a preserving of results that can be easier when you play slowly and record your improvisations so you can listen-and-preserve later. { synonyms: This page is about improvising melodies, but verbs that usually have similar meanings are composing, inventing, making, creating, and playing melodies. }
iou – Soon (in August) I'll develop these ideas that now are in my older page: When you're cooperating with other musicians, you want to be consistently decisive in doing something that is rhythmically compatible with what others are doing. Practicing with a metronome – and with “backing track” videos – can help you develop the self-discipline of being rhythmically consistent, of being in-synch with the timing of your fellow musicians. I'll be learning more about this from others (e.g. pros & cons of using a metronome) and then will write about it.
If you “play through” perceived mistakes, by yourself or others, you can develop and sustain a continuity (for the melody, rhythm, and harmony) that keeps the music flowing through time. And you can learn for the future, making it better by using the “master skill” of learning from experience. Ben Sidran describes the musical skill of graceful recovery from perceived mistakes, of responding in a way that is musically productive, that contributes to artistry & enjoyment for you, your fellow musicians, and those who are listening. He explains that "You have to fail at something first – which is not a failure, but an opportunity. They say jazz is the music of surprise, because you want to play what you don’t know, which means you have to make mistakes, and then recover from them. Music is the act of recovery."
And from a Detailed Table of Contents,
Musical Imagery: While you're playing or singing, feel (for yourself) or communicate (for others) your musically-metaphorical “imagery” for the atmosphere-character-flavor-mood of the music, for the ways you're thinking & feeling. { full section }
Musical Mystery: Usually, music that is interesting and enjoyable is semi-predictable, with some surprises. Why? Because when we hear music, we intuitively follow the flow of what has been happening, and “predict” what will happen. If there is too much sameness, we become bored. But we get frustrated if the music is too difficult to predict. We tend to enjoy an in-between mix, with frequent confirmation of expectations along with some surprises, in a blend that is interesting rather than boring or frustrating. { full section }
Musical Tension: In the music we enjoy, one aspect of artistic semi-mystery arises from creatively mixing consonance (sometimes) and dissonance (other times). To do this, a common strategy is moving away from the home-chord (or home-note) of a key, and then returning to it. In this way and others, musicians can produce tension (in their chords and/or melodies) and then resolve the tension. { full section } { using home-chords in a chord progression }
Playing a Wide Variety of Chords
In the Big Page I describe systematic strategies for exploring the many ways to simultaneously play only red notes. That section should be read first, as a foundation, then you can continue your exploring below.
chord inversions:
• On this diagram,
top row: is notes (1 3 5) in C-Chords, middle: notes (CDEFGAB) in C-Scale, bar-rows: red notes in C-Chords.  |
you can see that a basic C-Chord (C-E-G) has an “every other note” spacing that I call 2-and-2. The next three red notes (E-G-C) have a wider spacing of 2-and-3. Looking rightward, for the next set of three red notes (G-C-E) the spacing changes to 3-and-2. And looking further right, it's back to 2-and-2, repeating the first pattern (of C-E-G) except it's an octave higher. / Play the chord (of C Major) with each spacing pattern, and listen. Each pattern is a different chord inversion, producing sounds that are similar (because each chord is C Major, using only red notes: C, E, G) yet are different (due to the different spacings that put different notes into the bottom-middle-top of each chord inversion, in each version of a C Major Chord). { terms: the chord inversions have names – that I think are but of course you can play the chords without knowing their names. } { the importance of orders and octaves: By doing experiments with the chords of a 50s Progression you can hear how "changing the order-of-notes makes a BIG difference in the sound of a chord, especially in the context of other chords [in a chord progression]," and how "even though notes that are an octave apart sound 'essentially the same' when they're the only two notes we hear, when we hear these octave-notes in the musical context of other notes, they can produce very different sounds-and-feelings." } Although you can play chord-inversions without knowing their names, sometimes music teachers refer to the...
terms for chord inversions: These three chord inversions (C-E-G, E-G-C, G-C-E) are usually called (Root Position, First Inversion, Second Inversion) or (Root Position, 2nd Inversion, 3rd Inversion). I dislike two of these terms. I like root position because it highlights the importance of the root (aka root-note, 1-note) that in C Major is the home-note of C. I think the other two terms are un-intuitive. Instead it would be more intuitively-meaningful to define each chord by its lowest note, so they're called 1-Position (or Root-Position), 3-Inversion, 5-Inversion; or (1-base, 3-base, 5-base) or (root-low, 3-low, 5-low) or something similar. Or by specifying the note-order (135, 351, 513) with a system that could be generalized to include chords that skip a note, with different combinations as in 5351 or 5311.
• Another kind of experimenting is to move the 2-and-2 spacing rightward by one white note, so instead of beginning on C (to form a Chord of C Major, I ) it begins on D (to form a Chord of D Minor, ii ); moving further rightward, you'll form chords of E Minor ( iii ) and F Major ( IV ), and so on. Then you can do this with the other spacings, by moving 2-and-3 rightward to form inversions of C Major and D Minor,..; or move 3-and-2 rightward to form inversions of C Major and D Minor,... When you creatively mix the spacings (2-2, 2-3, 3-2) and locations (of the chord's lowest note) you'll produce a variety of interesting-sounding chords and chord progressions.
In addition to inversions you can modify the sound of a chord by playing different combinations of triad-notes, or adding non-triad notes to form extended chords.
• Or you can “skip” some chord-notes (they're grayed-out in these examples) instead of playing all that are consecutive, as in forming a C Major Chord with C-E-G-E or C-E-G-C-E, or with E-G-C-E-G or E-G-C-E-G or E-G-C-E-G, and other “spread out” chords.
• Or totally omit one kind of chord-note, as in C-E-G & C-E-G-E-C; or with G-C-E-G & C-E-G-C & E-G-C-E, without G; or, without C, E-G-E & G-E-G,...
• Instead of using only red notes (C,E,G), of course you can do analogous experiments with chords made from only blue notes (so F,A,C are arranged in different orders of the bottom-middle-top notes) and only green notes (with G,B,D in different orders). And by alternating periods of red chords and blue chords and green chords. And you can use other chords — especially A Minor (it's the vi-chord when you're playing in C Major) and D Minor (ii) and E Minor (iii) – to produce a wider variety of chord progressions. During all of your experimenting, listen and learn, enjoy.
What's below originally was in the main page, but then I decided it was “too much” to be included in a section about how to form chords. You can consider it to be part of the “results of discovery” when you explore the possibilities of forming chords.
other C-Chords: Above I describe the C-Chord as 135 (it's CEG), beginning with 1(C) as the lowest note. But another C-Chord is an inversion to form 351 (it's EGC), with 3(E) as its lowest note; and the highest note 1(C) is an octave above 1(C). Or in another inversion, a C-Chord can be 513 with a lowest note of 5(G). [[ iou – in late March, I'll make diagrams of these three chords, so it will be easier for you to understand. ]] / Or you can begin with 135 (CEG) and add a fourth note to make 1351, with a highest note of 1(C) that is an octave above the lower 1(C); or play this chord without 3(E) so it's 151; or add an extra note, so it's 1513; or with one more note, it could be 15135 or 15131 or 15151 and others. / You'll have more fun if you play these chords and hear their sounds. These are just a few of the many possible C-Chords; to discover others, explore the possibilities by yourself or with tips.
a variety of C-Chords: Using red-bar notes, above I describe 9 kinds of C-Chords: 135 (CEG) and the inversions of 351 (EGC) and 513, plus 1351, 151, 1513, 15135, 15131, 15151, etc; and you can discover other C-Chords.
a variety of F-Chords: Using blue-bar notes, you can produce analogous F-Chords: 135 (FAC) and the inversions of 351 (ACF) and 513, plus 1351, 151, 1513, 15135, 15131, 15151, etc; and you can discover other F-Chords.
a variety of G-Chords: Using green-bar notes, you can make analogous G-Chords: 135 (GBD) and the inversions of 351 (BDG) and 513, plus 1351, 151, 1513, 15135, 15131, 15151, etc; and you can discover other G-Chords.
use two scales: While you're inventing a melody with mainly red notes, "all non-red notes – both scale notes (white) and non-scale notes (black) – can be useful" in different ways, because each produces distinctive “sounds” in melodies. I enjoy making both kinds of melodies, so I sometimes “think classical” or “think blues” to inspire different ways of playing. While “thinking classical” I play mostly in-scale notes (white), and “thinking blues” is useful when I want to include more out-of-scale notes (black). { two ways to use a “blues scale” – that has some black notes, but not all – when playing blues } Here are the two scales, with 7 notes (only white) and 12 notes (all of them - 7 white, 5 black):
the diatonic major scale of C is “C D E F G A B C”
the chromatic scale of C is “C Db D Eb E F Gb G Ab A Bb B C”,
and other scales are diatonic minor, pentatonic minor & pentatonic major, minor blues & major blues & blues,
All of these ways to “mix chord-melodies with scale-melodies” [[in the examples I composed]] use non-chord notes that are in the diatonic scale (CDEFGAB) of C Major; they use non-chord white notes to form diatonic scale-melodies. But you can...
also include non-chord black notes to make chromatic scale-melodies. How? Here are a few examples, among the many that are possible, using any of the notes (either white or black) of the keyboard. You can play 1-2-b3-3-5-6-8 (where "b3" is a flatted-third, is the black note below 3, is the note between 2 and 3); or (3-4-b5-5-6-b7-7-8) or (8-b7-6-6b-5-3-4-b5-5-6-b7-9-8 or ...5-6-7-9-8 or ...5-6-b7-7-8) or
(1-3-5-6-b7-5-3-4-6-8-9-b10-9-8-6-5-7-9-10-11-10-9-7-8-6-5-3-1-...etc) with chord changes shown by color changes and underlinings. In this example (and all others) you can modify my melody to produce other melodies. The multiple possibilities are indicated by "...etc" in its ending, but of course other options are possible — and you will think some are better than my original melody — for every example you see in this page.
during a Chord Progression
with red-blue-green chords,
play Chord-Based Melodies
by mixing Chord Notes and
non-chordal Passing Notes:
red, blue, and green: During a chord progression when the chords are changing — when they sometimes are red, but other times are blue or green — you can improvise melodies that are “mainly red-chord notes” and “mainly blue-chord notes” and “mainly green-chord notes”. How? The strategies for playing mainly-red melodies – by using home notes and passing notes while experimenting – also are effective for improvising melodies that are mainly-blue and mainly-green.
two times: You can use passing notes artistically, with creativity & taste, during the long time while a chord is being played, and then during the short time when the chord changes, for a skillful transition from what you have been playing (during the first chord) to what you will be playing (during the next chord), with melodic continuity.
But instead of playing “mainly chord notes” it's easier to begin with “only chord notes” by improvising melodies with only-red, only-blue, and only-green. To illustrate, I've composed a melody for the common progression of “red-blue-green-red” that in the Key of C is “C-F-G-C” and generally (in any key) is “I-IV-V-I”. Using ten notes in the Scale of C (0123456789), one chord-based melody (among the MANY that are possible) is “1585351_4164864_5279520_1358531_” where during each chord the first six notes are one beat, and the final note (1_ , 4_ , 0_ , 1_ ) is two beats. Of course, you can modify this melody (in many creative ways) to make other melodies.
After you've played red-blue-green melodies using “only chord-notes” for awhile, and you're comfortable doing this, you can begin playing “mainly chord-notes” by using the ideas above and below.
principles and intuitions: This long section (beginning with Passing Notes and continuing thru Musical Mystery) describes practical strategies – using musical principles, growing intuitive ways to think & play – that may help you develop your skills of creatively inventing melodies that are “mainly-red and mainly-blue and mainly-green” during a chord progression. Throughout the section, if you find a strategy that is helping you, use it. If not, ignore it now, and maybe return to it later.
scaffolding & heuristics: You can use a strategy (for making melodies) as educational scaffolding that "breaks learning into bite-sized chunks so students can more easily tackle complex material [like the many ways to make melodies], building on old ideas and connecting them to new ones" by "providing students with a framework for learning as they build and strengthen their [cognitive-and-functional] understanding [and skills]." The strategies can function as practical heuristics that are useful ways of "helping to learn, guiding in discovery," with "mental shortcuts that allow people to... make judgments [about which notes to play while making melodies] quickly and efficiently." { quotations: A B C D }
use rhythm in melodies:
What? One way to make a melody be mainly red (with red featured) is by using rhythm. How? For each melody in my examples (and those you invent), try different rhythms and you'll find that the melody sounds much better with some rhythms than with others.
What? Earlier I describe how to "briefly play" chord-melodies and scale-melodies, with vague "briefly" timings, but this vagueness is only temporary. In order to make music that's more enjoyable-and-interesting, with experience you'll develop musical intuitions for converting vague “brief timings” into precise “for exactly-this-long timings” so your melody-notes and melody-rhythms will more effectively cooperate, and this will help your improvising be more smooth and musical.
How? Creatively “do experiments with rhythms” and see what happens. Try things you think might be interesting, and have fun! {some ideas for "experimenting with rhythms"} -- Aleah/Halle, I've moved it to here:
experimenting with rhythms:
When you "try different rhythms [while improvising a melody] you'll find that a melody sounds much better with some rhythms than with others." For example,
During a chord progression, two ways (among many) to emphasize chord notes so your melody sounds mainly-red {or mainly-blue, mainly-green} are to play red notes for longer times, or in “rhythmically strong” time-locations like the first beats of measures. { Of course, you also can emphasize some notes by playing them louder, and in other ways. }
But occasionally – to add some spicy surprise! 🙂 – you may want to rhythmically emphasize non-chord tones. Or begin a melody at a time that isn't the 1-beat of a bar. Or be surprising in other ways.
Creatively “do experiments with rhythms” and see what happens. Try things you think might be interesting, and have fun! You can...
Play more notes (faster, shorter) or fewer notes (slower, longer). Or mix fast & slow (short & long) in different ways.
When you listen to musicians who are skilled in the style you want (whether it's rock, jazz, blues, country, or classical) it will help you develop an intuitive “feeling” for the rhythms that work well.
Do “different things” for the on-beats (1 & 3) and off-beats (2 & 4).
Instead of splitting quarter-notes evenly to make two equally long eighth-notes [as in a timing of 3-and-3, if a quarter-note is “6”] you can split them into uneven triplets [4-and-2] to make the music “swing” (as in a “shuffle” rhythm for 12-bar blues). { The “swing” of uneven triplets is explained in words and music - plus diagrams - and illustrated with guitar & saxophone. }
With some instruments (although not a keyboard)* you can slide from one note to another – as with a trombone, violin, steel guitar, or voice – instead of making a time-separation between the notes. {* unless it has a pitch-bend wheel, 1 2 3 4 }
Change the tempo so it increases or decreases. Or vary it, alternating between slower & faster (like in songs by Chopin) if you're playing by yourself, or you're in a group that has a way to “change together” with coordination.
Inspirations: If you listen to music from a variety of cultures, you'll hear a variety of rhythms, and you may want to use some of these rhythms (as-is or modified) in the music you're making.
use home-notes in melodies: In the examples above, notice that red notes are featured; they are target notes, typically are used for beginning or ending a mini-scale, or as a turning point between upward & downward. More specifically, Key-of-C melodies often use C as the home-note(s) during a C Chord, to play a mainly-red melody; but use F as home-note(s) during an F Chord, to play a mainly-blue melody; and use G as home-note(s) during a G Chord, to play a mainly-green melody.
use the different chord-functions: In the Key of C, its three main chords (the home-chord C, plus F & G) have different functions in chord progressions to produce-and-resolve tension in "music that is interesting and enjoyable, is semi-predictable with some surprises... in a blend that is interesting rather than boring or frustrating." And the key's three main 1-Notes (its overall 1-Note of C, plus F & G) have different functions as home-notes in melodies, because typically the C-Notes are used as permanent home-notes throughout a song (and especially when a C-Chord is being played), but F-Notes or G-Notes are used only as temporary home-notes during the time when an F-Chord or G-Chord is being played.
use the scales of each chord:
Earlier, the center diagram (of three one-color diagrams) shows that in the Key of F Major, the F-Scale has Bb (it's called B-flat because it's “flatter” than B, by one semitone) instead of B, because this change is necessary to produce a correct-sounding Major Scale, as shown in this table. Similarly, in the Key of G Major the G-Scale must have an F# that is F-sharp, is “sharper” than F. { flats and sharps }
| C Scale: | C |
C# |
D |
D# |
E |
F |
F# |
G |
G# |
A |
A# |
B |
C |
| F Scale: | F |
Gb |
G |
Ab |
A |
Bb |
B |
C |
Db |
D |
Eb |
E |
F |
| G Scale: | G |
G# |
A |
A# |
B |
C | C# |
D |
D# |
E |
F |
F# |
G |
If you play a melody in the Key of F, this F-Melody usually will sound musically strange if you use B as a passing note (between A and C) instead of Bb. For the same reason, when playing a song in the Key of C an F-Melody (that's played during an F-Chord) almost always sounds better when Bb (not B) is used as a passing note.
But if you play a G-Melody (in the Key of G, or during a G-Chord) and use F instead of F#, this usually will sound less strange, compared with the strangeness of an F-Melody that uses B instead of Bb. And in some musical situations, you may think the F sounds better than F#. In fact, a basic G Chord (playing GBD) often is supplemented to form a G7 Chord (playing GBDF) and F becomes a Chord Note, instead of being a Non-Chord Note that also is a Non-Scale Note.
This sub-section is limited to The Key of C Major. More generally, in all other keys a Major Scale requires playing one or more flat-notes or sharp-notes. If you want to know the what-and-why, you can learn how The Circle of Fifths is constructed by using The Logic of Scales.
new melodies plus old melodies: You'll add interesting ingredients to your musical mix when, in addition to the new melodies you're inventing, your improvising also includes old melodies that already exist in a familiar song. This blending of old with new is a popular way to improvise, because it works well. How? By alternating times of old with new, and retaining some connection(s) with the old song. When you're "doing old" you can alternate times of using old melodies as-is, and modified to form semi-old melodies that are slightly-unfamiliar (with some unpredictable Musical Mystery but not too much) so your variations can be recognized as variations of the old melody, but not totally different. And when you're "doing new" you CAN be totally different in the new melodies you're inventing — perhaps by alternating times when the focus is chord-notes (in chord-melodies) and is scale-notes (in scale-melodies) — IF your new melodies "fit well" with chords in the chord progression of the old song. In these ways you always can retain some connection with the old song, either with similarity that is only-harmonic (if your new melodies are totally unrelated to the old melodies) or is harmonic-and-melodic (if your new melodies are connected with old melodies); when doing this the strategy is to sometimes play new melodies (with only harmonic) and sometimes play old melodies (with harmonic plus melodic).
if your new melodies are recognizable variations of old melodies
or includes a song-melody (or modified variations of it); or you can use all three strategies in creative ways, by alternating them and/or blending them together.
With three strategies for improvising you can improvise melodies where the focus is chord-notes (used in chord-melodies) or scale-notes (used in scale-melodies), or includes a song-melody (or modified variations of it); or you can use all three strategies in creative ways, by alternating them and/or blending them together.
[[ iou – Originally, during early-June 2024, the ideas below (in small green font) were in my Summary Page, but I decided that “it's too much detail” and “I need to learn more about this topic” so it's been moved to here. Currently it's incomplete & chaotic, so it will need to be developed & revised. ]]
△ play old melodies by ear: Just play old (familiar, pre-composed) melodies that you already know, can remember. This is fun, and it will help you improve the valuable skill of converting musical ideas into musical sounds. When you begin doing this you'll make mistakes, but your experiences will help you improve your skills. { some details about converting ideas into sounds }
⊡ improve your playing-by-ear skills: What? When playing by ear, you are converting your musical ideas (internal) into musical sounds (external). How? During your playing you'll be combining experiences — mentally (conscious & subconscious) in the music you're imagining (in the music) seeing (on keyboard
with music will First you get musical ideas (they're “ideas” you “hear in your mind”) about the musical intervals between each note and the next-note (the next musical sound) you want to play, with an interval being the answer to “how much higher (or lower) is the next-note?” Second, you play the next-note on your keyboard, to produce its musical sound, by knowing its location relative to the previous note,
How? On the web, you can find many helpful resources for ear training (generally) and (specifically) playing melodies by ear. In this paragraph, I want to share ideas that are especially valuable-and-effective for a colorized keyboard, when you're specializing in the Key of C Major instead of playing in all 12 major keys.
i.e. "how much rightward (or leftward) is the next-note?”
To do this conversion you must know – consciously and/or subconsciously – how to produce (externally with the keyboard) the musical intervals-between-notes that you're thinking (internally). You get this knowledge-of-intervals by making connections between the notes you are playing (on the keyboard) and the intervals you are hearing.
play “blues melodies” by using
“blues notes” and blues scales:
How? You can...
1. use blues notes: When playing “blues melodies” (during 12-Bar Blues or in “jazz blues” or “blues rock”) a common melody-making strategy is to use “blues notes”. These are minor notes from a minor key — a flatted-third (b3) and flatted-seventh (b7) — while playing major chords in a major key; this is one way to play Minor-within-Major. Another useful “blues note” is the flatted 5th (b5) because even though this note isn't in the Minor Scale, it lets you play melodies with a pair of minor-sounding “flatted chord notes,” as with a flatted-E (the Eb that is b3) plus flatted-G (it's Gb, is the b5). And b7 actually IS a chord-note in the 7th chords (1,3,5,b7) that usually are played in Blues Progressions. These three notes – b3, b5, b7 – are useful for playing chord-based melodies (mainly-red, mainly-blue, mainly-green) with a “blues” sound-and-feeling. How? During a C Chord you can play chord notes (C,E,G) and also non-chord notes with blues-notes (b3,b5,b7 - Eb,Gb,Bb) featured; during an F-Chord you play chord notes (F,A,C) and also non-chord notes with blues-notes (Ab,Cb=B,Eb) featured; during a G-Chord, play chord notes (G,B,D) plus non-chord notes with blues-notes (Bb,Db,F) featured.
The following examples of passing notes that are useful for playing blues melodies during a chord of C Major. {to understand better, you should play these on a keyboard - or another instrument - so you can hear them} Although some of the non-chord passing notes are in-scale white notes, many are non-scale black notes that are named as flats (b) or sharps (#). You can move between chord-notes (1 3 5 1) with... 1-3b-3-5 or 1-3-5b-5 or 1-3b-3-5b-5 or 5-5b-4-3-1 or 5-3-3b-2-1 or... any of the many possibilities for ascending from 1 thru 3 to 5, or descending from 5 thru 3 to 1. You can move from 1 thru 3 to 5, or instead you can skip 3, as with 1-5b-5 (ascending) or (descending) 5-3b-1. Or moving upward from 3 thru 5 to 1 (an octave above 1), you can play 3-5-6-1 or 3-5-6-7-1 or 3-5-5#-6-1 or 3-5-7b-1 or 3-5b-5-7b-1 or (to descend) 1-6-5-3 or (by combining down-movements with an up-movement) 1-6-5-3b-3 or 1-7b-5-3b-3 or 1-7b-5-5b-5 or 1-7b-5-3b-3-5b-5. Or moving an octave downward from 1 to 1, play 1-7b-5-4-3b-1 (using the notes of a minor pentatonic scale) or 1-7b-5-3b-3-5-6-5-3-1. Or from 1 up to 1 and back down to 1, with 1-3-5-6-1-6-5-3-1 or 1-3-5-6-7b-6-5-3. The final example intentionally has one less note (the 1 is missing) because this allows a smooth transition from mainly red (during a C Chord) when it's followed by mainly blue (during an 4 Chord), as when 1-3-5-6-7b-6-5-3 is followed by 4-6-1-9-10b-9-1-6, to form a classic blues-rock riff. / Of course, all of these “passing note” ideas — and other ideas, because these are only a few of the MANY ways to use passing notes — can be adapted for use during any chord, whether the chord is 1, 4, 5, or Am, Dm, Em, or another. Here are the same two paragraphs, but with melody-notes described by letters (CDE...) instead of numbers (123...): You can move between chord-notes (C E G C) with... C-Eb-E-G or C-E-Gb-G or C-Eb-E-Gb-G or G-Gb-F-E-C or G-E-Eb-D-C or... any of the many possibilities for ascending from C thru E to G, or descending from G thru E to C. You can move from C thru E to G, or instead you can skip E, as with C-Gb-G (ascending) or (descending) G-Eb-C. Or moving upward from E thru G to C (an octave above C), you can play E-G-A-C or E-G-A-B-C or E-G-G#-A-C or E-G-Bb-C or E-Gb-G-Bb-C or (to descend) C-A-G-E or (by combining down-movements with an up-movement) C-A-G-Eb-E or C-Bb-G-Eb-E or C-Bb-G-Gb-G or C-Bb-G-Eb-E-Gb-G. Or moving an octave downward from C to C, play C-Bb-G-F-Eb-C (using a minor pentatonic scale) or C-Bb-G-Eb-E-G-A-G-E-C. Or from C up to C and back down to C, with C-E-G-A-C-A-G-E-C or C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E. The final example intentionally has one less note (the C is missing) because this allows a smooth transition from mainly red (during a Chord) when it's followed by mainly blue (during an F Chord), as when C-E-G-A-Bb-A-G-E is followed by F-A-C-D-Eb-D-C-A, to form a classic blues-rock riff. / Of course, all of these “passing note” ideas — and other ideas, because these are only a few of the MANY ways to use passing notes — can be adapted for use during any chord, whether the chord is C, F, G, or Am, Dm, Em, or another. |
2. use blues scales: Musicians think about “playing blues” in many ways. One way (using blues notes) is to play melodies that include notes with a “minor sound” (b3,b5,b7) in the scale of each chord (I,IV,V - C,F,G). Another way, popular among musicians, is to “play blues” by using a Blues Scale. The most common – so it's often called “the Blues Scale” – is a Minor Blues Scale (1-b3-4-b5-5-b7) that is a Minor Pentatonic Scale with b5 added; it includes b3,b5,b7 but excludes four notes (2,3,6,7) that are in the Scale of C Major. Or they use a Major Blues Scale (1-2-b3-3-5-6) that is a Major Pentatonic Scale with b3 added. Or they use both scales, alternating between them. Or the two scales can be combined into a Hybrid Blues Scale (1-2-b3-3-4-b5-5-6-b7) that includes the 9 shared notes; it's a Minor Blues Scale with extra notes (2,3,6) that give a player more flexibility, making this a useful scale for improvising melodies. { note: The term scale has two meanings so it's important to recognize that a blues scale is "a group of scale-notes that can be played in any way [with creative flexibility]" and is not the rigidity of always "playing all of the scale-notes in consecutive sequence without skipping any." } / * You also can think about a 9-note Hybrid Blues Scale (1-2-b3-3-4-b5-5-6-b7) as being formed by combining Mixolydian Mode (1-2-3-4-5-6-b7) with a Minor Blues Scale (1-b3-4-b5-5-b7) to form a Mixo-Blues Scale that has the same 9 notes, but with a different way to "think about the scale."
use the same scale during all chords: I was surprised to discover that some musicians sometimes play a C-Based Blues Scale – Minor, Major, and/or Hybrid – during C-Chords (as expected) but also during F-Chords & G-Chords, instead of changing the scale when the chord changes, as described above. But even though the scale never changes, they can “musically adjust” by playing a C-scale in different ways during each of the three chords.
choosing your strategies: I don't understand why musicians would "use the same scale during all chords" to make melodies. But I would like to know why — and to know if I'm ignoring a valuable strategy for making melodies — so I want to learn more about it. I'll be learning by reading pages and hearing videos, and sometimes using the strategy while playing. Currently this melody-making strategy isn't “a way I think” while playing blues, but it's a way that evidently is common among experienced musicians, because it helps them skillfully improvise blues melodies. And it's often recommended by teachers. / As a musician-and-teacher, here is my view of strategies: if any “way to think about playing” is a practical heuristic that helps you play well, probably you should choose to use it. Or if you think it might be helpful, try it so you can discover whether it really does "help you play well." Feel free to try multiple strategies, and you may find that different “ways to think” are helpful in different ways.
[[ iou - Later I'll figure out how to finish this section, and will link to an appendix with "more" about it. / Here is a preview of what I'll say: I'm confused — because I'm wondering why this melody-making strategy is common among music players and music teachers (but how common is it?) — so I'm trying to learn more about the reasons. ---- I think experienced musicians know the chords, and "adjust their scale playing" in musical ways ---- maybe this (chords change but scales don't change) occurs because it's simple, and (as claimed by FA Chords Guitar) "Finally, with this last strategy, you'll achieve the level of Top Blues Master. In this stage, you're going to mix the minor sound of the minor pentatonic scale, and the major sound of dominant arpeggios. All the great blues masters, like Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B. King, used this trick to enhance their expressivity and feeling. All you need to do is to use the minor pentatonic as a foundation, and add the notes of the arpeggio of the chord your playing over." This method (of pentatonics foundation and "add" arpeggio notes) is similar to what I'm describing, but isn't exactly the same / is a little different. ]]
Part 1A has more about playing melodies & chords with the red-blue-green of C Major.
