The limitations of using blues scales-using Modes would be better for this song?

[Michael Bishop]

Hi Johnny,
As you know, I’m a big fan of old school R&B/Motown and I have some songs that I think would make fantastic Saxophone instrumentals and I plan on doing, but some of these songs that I do have in mind don’t strike me as the type of songs where the kind of Improvisation that I’ve been learning from you in Killer Blues would fit well here, I posted a video of just one song below that I plan on doing (the one below is perfect for Tenor and some high-screaming Altissimo LOL). Would these types of songs below be better suited for the style of Improvisation that you cover in your new course–using modes to Improvise with? In listening to these songs and the way they feel, to me that’s what I hear/feel is that using modes to Improvise with would be much, much better, but maybe I’m wrong? In any case, I plan on starting your new course in time very soon, my goal is in the Spring and I do believe I’ll meet that goal 🙂

[john]

yes but this song is pretty blues/funky oriented so you could sound good playing the blues scale but it does go thru some changes where you can incorporate the other stuff too. we can get away with just the blues scales over almost anything but we gotta have a deeper bag of tricks too for a more rounded out and more versatile sound.

[Michael Bishop]

Yeah, that’s a pretty funky tune, but I really love Old Motown/R&B..living here in the south 90% of the music we hear on the radio is along these lines. When it comes to Improvising, the more I learn from you, it just seems like there’s virtually no end to what someone can do in just one single song–Pentatonic Scales, Blues Scales, Dominant Chords, Modes of the Scale, using all of this stuff in our “arsenal”….it’s pretty amazing to say the least, makes our playing much more “colorful” too. The one thing that really surprised me that I learned in your Killer Blues book is that a dominant chord of 1-3-5-b7 will work over the 1, 4 and 5 chord progression in a blues progression v.s. so much other kind of music out there…..isn’t it usually only the 5th that’s a dominant chord in lots of pop/rock music? When I was out west in New Mexico and around my nephews who are guitar players, the only time I ever heard them talk about using dominant chords was over the fifth and that’s it…they never talked about it over anything else but the fifth. In any case I’m pretty sure I’ll meet my goal of starting your new course come Spring, I just want to make sure I REALLY have a firm grip on what I’m learning now and that I can pull it out and use it, at will, when playing. It’s already starting to feel that way right now and I’ll upload some more Blues playing here pretty soon. It doesn’t do any good jumping from one thing to the next without having taking the time I need to make what you teach “my own” which is why I haven’t bought your new Improvisation course…yet. 🙂 But I will be doing so in the upcoming months. There’s only so much time in the day to practice and I can’t focus on more than 1 thing at a time. Every since I started learning to play, there’s absolutely no question that, for me, Improvising with Blues/Rock was my first “love” on the Saxophone…and Altissimo LOL

[Author]

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