Exercise to help learn Pentatonic Scales “Inside and Out”

[Michael Bishop]

I’ve started working on part 2 of Johnny’s lesson regarding Improvisation and anyone who has done so knows that it’s a little tricky, because we’re improvising with more than just 1 scale like we did in part 1. In part 2, Johnny really stresses the need to know the scales “inside and out”. So to help me learn to Improvise, I got the idea of an exercise that stems from learning the Major scales in Johnny’s ebook; because the 1,2,3, 5 & 6 notes of a Pentatonic Scale are taken from the Major (and Minor) scales. I took a page of sheet music and decided to start writing down the Pentatonic Scales for the major scales. My thought was If I learned my Major scales and practice them on a Metronome, then I can practice the Pentatonic scales on a metronome too. Remember, as Johnny has clarified for me a couple months back, we can go as low/as high as we can when Improvising with a Scale, so I wrote down the Pentatonic Scales of C Major, D Major and G Major; from the low Octaves to the High Octaves and plan on practicing them with the Metronome. You should be able to see what I wrote on the file I attached.
The Metronome, for me, is EASILY one of the biggest things that helped me learn the Major Scales and I certainly feel the difference in my playing when I practice with it. I don’t ever plan to stop practicing without it and I certainly don’t think it’s dull/monotonous. It’s one of those things that I think can really help us know the scales “inside and out” so that learning to Improvise, like Johnny posted on the blog regarding those famous Sax solos, can help us to do things on our Sax that others can’t.
[img]https://howtoplaysaxophone.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/xv6a6-DSC00701.JPG[/img]

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