Jazz Trombone F.A.Q.

4A) My teacher has us working on the "blues scale", but I've heard other

people say that you shouldn't "overplay it". What does that mean?

Sam Burtis: I don't know.

WHICH "blues scale"?

What kind of MUSIC are you playing ?

Do B. B. King or Ray Charles "overplay" it ?

Not in their idioms.

Would B. B. King sound good w/ middle period Coltrane ?

There's a time for "blue" notes and scales, and a time NOT to use them.

Listen to the greats; figure out for yourself.

Chris Smith: I personally almost NEVER think of the blues scale while

improvising. I think it's used to often as a crutch for inexperienced

improvisers, which is a shame. There's no reason people can't begin with the

idea that music is made of ideas, not scales, and you can begin playing simple

ideas and still be interesting and satisfying as a soloist. Take Harry "Sweets"

Edison- one of the "bluesiest" players jazz has ever known. He could play a

chorus of one repeated note, bending it this way and that, accenting the rhythms

in such a way that would really be bluesy, AND interesting, and satisfying.

I'm getting into an area which is beyond the scope of this discussion, but "the

blues" is more than one THING, or style, or whatever. There are whole realms of

musical feeling which, if you tried to classify them, could be bluesy, or

blues-informed, or blues-based, or just "blue"……..I think the widespread notion

that the blues can be reduced to a single scale, as Sam pointed out, is just

wrong.

Alex Iles: I wish that no one had actually ever tried to define the term (‘blues scale”).

The blues is so many things, but IT IS DEFINITELY NOT JUST A SCALE.

I have never heard a blues [or blues inspired] player I liked actually ever sound

like he/she was playing off the blues scale specifically.

The idea of "Blue Notes" is even a stretch sometimes. If you play the third or the

fifth of a chord a little flat or scoop it, you may sound "bluesy", but the same is

true of the root, the seventh, and the eleventh. A natural thirteenth can be the bluest

note in the world!!!!

Blues players have scooped and swooped many of the notes of traditional harmony

so that in time, the flatted third and fifth started to actually sound good on

their own. The blues is as much about the way the player uses rhythm and

expression to create/express feelings rather than the scale itself. Again,

listen and imitate. Not all blues are twelve bars, one scale or even one or two

notes. It is the root feeling of what jazz and improvisation are all about.

Jeff Adams: If you are just running up and down the blues scale, that isn't very

musically interesting- is it? Try some repetition, bending notes, playing with the

time, laying back or any of the hundreds of techniques that good soloists use

to create interest in their solos. The only way to understand the language

of improvisation is to listen to it so that you can speak it when you need to.

The only way you’ll be able to make this grouping of notes sound hip is to have

listened to it and have an understanding of how it has been done previously.