Right And Wrong 10-A
Published: Thu, 10/19/23
To be clear, I’m not waiting for an evening tee-time or a shot at the shuffleboard courts; my kid’s high school has many good points, including a marimba ensemble that likes to practice in the parking lot during dropoff, but a pool is not part of the infrastructure, so the swim team has to rehearse – ahem, practice – elsewhere. (Night golf does sound hazardous and hilarious in equal measures, but the fact that I can even picture such a thing probably means I’ve been watching far too many Homestar Runner cartoons on Youtube lately. Look them up – you won’t be sorry, unless you actually need to get things done when you’re in front of a screen.)
As I was saying, I meant to address the question of right and wrong and learning scales before I got distracted by the euphoria-inducing weather. Before I get back that, here are the answers to a few questions I’ve received about this weekend’s Minor Blues & Bebop workshop:
1. Do I need to have taken last month’s Minor Blues Chord Substitutions – or last spring’s Bebop For Beginners – to take Minor Blues & Bebop?
No, you don’t. Each Reliable Source workshop is designed to stand on its own.
2. Can I still get those other workshops if I want them?
Yes! Click here for Minor Blues Chord Substitutions. Click here for Bebop For Beginners.
3. Will I learn complete solos in the workshop?
Yes. Minor Blues & Bebop will include several complete 12-bar solos, along with specific practice ideas for how to mix and match various licks to build your vocabulary and create new solos of your own.
4. How much of the material will be tabbed out?
All of it. Every exercise and solo will be completely written out in notation and tab in the downloadable PDF that comes with the workshop. The PDF will also include any important theory ideas, diagrams for all the scales, and charts with chord diagrams for the progressions we’ll be looking at.
5. I can’t make the live stream on Saturday. Will there be a replay available?
Yes, a complete replay of the entire workshop will be available to watch on demand – whether you attend the live stream or not. Just sign up like you would to be at the live stream, and use the same links to watch the workshop whenever you want, for up to a year afterwards.
6. Yeah, about that. How come I only get a year’s access?
That’s going to take a longer answer, which I will provide in a separate email tomorrow.
7. How much does it cost?
Each individual workshop in this series, including Minor Blues & Bebop, costs $79. You can buy all three together for $197, and save $40 over the total cost of buying the three workshops individually.
8. Is there any advantage to actually attending the live stream?
I keep a chat window open for the entire two-hour live stream, and check it periodically throughout the workshop so that students watching live can post questions in real time about the lesson material – anything from “Wait, how are you fingering that?” or “Would you mind explaining how that chord substitution works again?” to “Man, I would love it if you could just play that one lick again, reealllly slowly!” All of which I am happy to do, as time permits.
If you still have a question I haven't answered about Saturday's workshop, email me today and I’ll do my best to fold the answer into tomorrow’s newsletter.
2. Can I still get those other workshops if I want them?
Yes! Click here for Minor Blues Chord Substitutions. Click here for Bebop For Beginners.
3. Will I learn complete solos in the workshop?
Yes. Minor Blues & Bebop will include several complete 12-bar solos, along with specific practice ideas for how to mix and match various licks to build your vocabulary and create new solos of your own.
4. How much of the material will be tabbed out?
All of it. Every exercise and solo will be completely written out in notation and tab in the downloadable PDF that comes with the workshop. The PDF will also include any important theory ideas, diagrams for all the scales, and charts with chord diagrams for the progressions we’ll be looking at.
5. I can’t make the live stream on Saturday. Will there be a replay available?
Yes, a complete replay of the entire workshop will be available to watch on demand – whether you attend the live stream or not. Just sign up like you would to be at the live stream, and use the same links to watch the workshop whenever you want, for up to a year afterwards.
6. Yeah, about that. How come I only get a year’s access?
That’s going to take a longer answer, which I will provide in a separate email tomorrow.
7. How much does it cost?
Each individual workshop in this series, including Minor Blues & Bebop, costs $79. You can buy all three together for $197, and save $40 over the total cost of buying the three workshops individually.
8. Is there any advantage to actually attending the live stream?
I keep a chat window open for the entire two-hour live stream, and check it periodically throughout the workshop so that students watching live can post questions in real time about the lesson material – anything from “Wait, how are you fingering that?” or “Would you mind explaining how that chord substitution works again?” to “Man, I would love it if you could just play that one lick again, reealllly slowly!” All of which I am happy to do, as time permits.
If you still have a question I haven't answered about Saturday's workshop, email me today and I’ll do my best to fold the answer into tomorrow’s newsletter.
Now, on to the big philosophical matter of learning scales – can there be a right and a wrong way?
Here’s the thing. Scales themselves are one of those happily objective concepts in music. The term “major scale" describes a specific, particular thing, the same way “transitive verb” or "water molecule" or "nautical mile" does. But how you learn scales matters, because your hands remember what you practice. So if you practice your scales in two octaves, always starting from the root, always going up the scale, you’ll know how to express the idea “C major scale” on the guitar, but that won’t necessarily translate into being able to do anything particularly musical with it.
If your goal is to improvise, you'll need more flexibility than that. Which is where the right and wrong bit comes in. Playing from root to root in two octaves isn’t exactly wrong – it’s one way to assimilate the territory, certainly – but to develop a flexible, hands-on ability to make improvised music, there are definitely better ways to practice your scales.
Like how, exactly? That's what I discuss in today’s Youtube lesson, which you can find at the link below:
Are You Learning Scales The Wrong Way?
More soon,
David
Note: registration is still open for this Saturday's Minor Blues & Bebop workshop:
Minor Blues & Bebop Workshop Registration