Lesson 5

Scales?
We don' need no Stinkin
Scales!
More Scales. I know what yur thinkin.. BORING ...what has this got to
do with the blues?
To REALLY play the blues you have to be extremely familiar with your
instrument. Familiar enough to make it up as you go along. It 's known
as improvisation and it is what the Blues is really all about. Blues is
a mood. It's not a dusty old record somewhere. It's creating a mood in
the moment with the sound that comes out of your horn.
Playing scales and other exercises familiarizes you with your
insrument. So that when you reach for a musical idea, it happens.
Effortlessly.
In lesson one I introduced the major scale on holes 4-7
Did you know that you can also play the same scale an octive lower
on notes 1-4 by bending two notes?
We will try it down the scale from hole 4 to hole 1 first because for
beginners it is easier to hit a note and bend it flat that to just hit a
note flat.
The number is the hole
D = Draw
B= Blow
b = Flat or bent
do ti la so fa mi re do
4 3 3 2 2 2 1 1

B D D D D B D B

b b
Here it is played slowly:
exercise 1 (slow)
and faster:
exercise 1a (fast)

Now lets try it up the scale.

More difficult, but essential is learning to hit these notes already

BENT.
In this scale exercise, the 2 and 3 draw are played bent, then played
straight (no bend).
Let the bend come up until the normal tone of the note is heard.
do re mi fa so la ti do
1 1 2 2 2 3 3 4

B D B D D D D B

b b

Here is the exercise played slowly:

exercise 2 (slow)

and here is the way it should sound when you have mastered it:

exercise 2a (fast)

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