D Blues Scale with Comping Exercise

*** Note:  I forgot to note this on the sheet music!  Please practice this exercise in swing rhythm (a long-short pattern in the eighth notes). ***

What will you get with this exercise? (LINK BELOW)

✅ D blues scale practice with proper fingering

✅  Practice comping chords WHILE playing a blues scale

✅  Practice of ii-V-i ending

✅`Practice of syncopated rhythms typical in jazz

✅ Preparation for improvising over chords in the blues scale

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I wanted one of my adult students to start comping chords in the left hand while improvising in the blues scale in the right hand, so I wrote this exercise.  Why D blues first?  Because it's a relatively easy blues scale, and only has one black key in it.  

This is an early-intermediate level exercise but can be used for more advanced levels if you're new to jazz or blues scales.  In this exercise, the right hand will be running up and down the D blues scale with a syncopated rhythm that is typical of jazz, and you will get lots of practice mastering the D blues scale fingering in the process!   Practice the right hand alone first. 

Once you have the right hand down, start adding in the left hand chords.  Once you've mastered the first half of the page, which only has whole notes in the left hand, practice the new left hand rhythm found in the second half of the exercise.  This is a syncopated left-hand jazz rhythm that is frequently used in jazz music.  

After you've mastered the second half, try to get creative!  First, improvise a melody using the D blues scale tones, but make sure you do them out of order.  Keep your left hand going in the same rhythm all the way through. Here's the pdf:   D Blues with Comping Exercise

I hope it helps you get started practicing blues!

Ethnic Pluralism in Composing? Yes!

Ethnic Pluralism in Music:  A Song's Journey from Klezmer to Hindu

(image courtesy http://www.jazzguitar.be/melodic_minor_modes.html)

I've been replacing my social media time with composing time at the piano.  A while ago I dove into a Jewish Fakebook for a Hanukkah party.  At the party, I found myself deeply enamored with the music, as my friend John sat by and translated the Hebrew for me.  But it was the energized sadness of Jewish music that stuck with me for weeks -- and apparently, its influence has infiltrated my composing.

So when a recent bout of insomnia hit, I resisted the urge to dip into the fomenting cauldron of social media addicts.  Instead, I hit the piano with a tune that was hopping around in my mind.  (I've actually cut back my social media time dramatically, an accomplishment facilitated by my investment in a "smart" flip phone.  Aye, it's pretty dumb by Apple standards, but it has helped me eliminated wasted time and replace it with artistic productivity.)

Back to the tune...

My intent was to compose something for a student.  I have always had a vision of composing a piece for every student and having the students perform my compositions in recital.  But I often get off course and the piece gets complicated; too complicated for a beginner.  This could be something I just have to accept.  But, nonethless, the piece became very interesting as I complexified it (that is one of my favorite made-up words).

My creation became a whimsical, syncopated dance of Klezmer Band meets Blues Pianist (of course, it is easy to take any Jewish minor piece for a detour into the blues scale, since the minor pentatonic is only one note shy of the blues scale).  As I allowed the piece to become a little more wild, it journeyed into some very long 7th chords stacked with 9ths and 11ths.  Finally, it landed on a very strange jazz chord (D-F#-G#-C) which gave me quite a stir!  I quickly discovered a delicious scale to marry with this chord, but I had no idea of what scale I'd stumbled upon.  I knew it looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it.  Later, at a piano lesson, I explained to my student that it looked like the A melodic minor (ascending) but it started on the 5th, so maybe it was Myxolydian Melodic Minor.  

When I got back home I looked it up.  Lo and behold...imagine my suprise that the Jewish romp-turned jazz tune had led me to a Hindu scale (also called a Mixolydian b6 or Mixolydian b13 or Aeolian Dominant Scale).  My scale was an E Hindu Scale.  This scale deceptively looks like a major in the beginning but suddenly turns minor in the last few notes.  Now my Eastern European-Jewish composition was flirting with Indian and American Blues scales...how cool is that?  Actually, I am quite enjoying it and can't wait to finish and share!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Jennifer Warren-Baker is the owner of Piano 2 Go, a mobile music service offering in-home and Skype instruction in piano and composition, as well as piano entertainment.  Her business is headquartered in Purcellville, Virginia, USA.