Playing Scales Musically

Mindlessly playing scales up and down digs deep ruts of habit in the nervous system, and these habits make improvisation sound mechanical and boring.

To make solos and improvisation sound musical, we need to play melodic lines over a chord progression, emphasizing the notes of the chords in the melody.

Practice scales over chords

One of the best ways to develop this skill is to practice scales over chord shapes, and practice those shapes within chord progressions. Here's an example of practicing the E-shape in a I-IV-V progression.

Then, during play time we focus on playing the chord changes, and let the "mind's ear" drive the melody, realized through the muscle memory of the scales practiced over those chords.

Chord tones on downbeats

A good way to make improvisation sound musical is to practice scales with chord tones on downbeats. This grows structures in our brains and nervous systems that help us think of musical phrasings and make them flow out through our fingers.

Note that this is only a practice time constraint. During play time we should feel free to play whatever occurs to us, regardless of chord tones.

Chord tone patterns

The easiest way to make chord tones land on downbeats is to practice scale patterns in which chord tones and non-chord tones alternate. Then we can run straight through at a consistent tempo, with no need for rhythmic variation. But most scales don't evenly distribute chord tones and non-chord tones in this way. Sometimes there is more than one note between chord tones, and sometimes there are two chord tones in a row.

So each scale has natural rhythms or patterns that allow playing them with chord tones on downbeats. These patterns can be derived based on the distribution of chord tones within each scale.

For example, here's a major scale practice pattern with all the chord tones on downbeats:

Chord tone rhythms

Scales that have two chord tones in a row require a pause between them if we're going to practice with chord tones on downbeats. This pause creates a natural rhythmic pattern. For example, here's the natural chord tone rhythm of the major pentatonic scale:

By practicing scales over chords in these rhythmic patterns, we train our ears and our fingers to be able to automatically express musical phrasings as we follow the chord changes in a song. Practicing scales in this way carves channels into our nervous system that give our musical imagination a path to flow through in the moment of inspiration.

The lessons in this series introduce common musical patterns for practicing scales in this way. Later lessons will explore these patterns over specific chord shapes on the fretboard.