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Mini Improvisation Course

This document provides an overview of scales useful for musical improvisation, including the minor pentatonic, blues, natural minor, and Dorian scales. It recommends starting with the minor pentatonic and blues scales before moving to the natural minor and Dorian. Accompanying chord progressions are also presented for improvising over. Tips are given to practice the scales and chord progressions in different keys to build familiarity and allow focus on improvising.

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Jonathan c.v
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212 views4 pages

Mini Improvisation Course

This document provides an overview of scales useful for musical improvisation, including the minor pentatonic, blues, natural minor, and Dorian scales. It recommends starting with the minor pentatonic and blues scales before moving to the natural minor and Dorian. Accompanying chord progressions are also presented for improvising over. Tips are given to practice the scales and chord progressions in different keys to build familiarity and allow focus on improvising.

Uploaded by

Jonathan c.v
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Mini

Improvisation
Course

Resource Pack

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Scales
These four scales are very helpful when learning how to improvise: Minor Pentatonic, Blues Scale,
Natural Minor & Dorian. Each one has its own distinct sound and can be used for different
purposes. I recommend starting with the Minor Pentatonic and Blues Scale and only moving on to
the Natural Minor and Dorian once you are comfortable and familiar with the first two.

Minor Pentatonic Scale


The minor pentatonic scale has a very clean and simple sound. It is a 5-note scale and is very popular
st rd th th th
amongst beginners learning to improvise. It is constructed from the 1 , 3 , 4 , 5 & 7 degrees of the
natural minor scale.

C Minor Pentatonic

D Minor Pentatonic

Blues Scale
The blues scale is very similar to the minor pentatonic. The only difference is the addition of the flat 5.
This extra note is what creates the bluesy sound the scale produces. If you want a simple yet effective
bluesy sound in your solos, then use this scale.

C Blues Scale

D Blues Scale

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Natural Minor Scale


The natural minor is the most common minor scale. It is very useful when it comes to improvisation but
it is slightly harder to pull off than the previous scales.

C Natural Minor

D Natural Minor

Dorian Scale
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The Dorian is a modal scale. It is the same as the natural minor with a raised 6 . You can also think of it
as having the same notes as the major scale a whole step below. It has a dark, minor jazzy sound.

C Dorian

D Dorian

Practice Tips
To practice these scales, start with the minor pentatonic and play it over two octaves, when you get back to
the starting note immediately play up the blues scale. Continue the same process changing between all 4
scales. Make sure to do this in both C minor & D minor.

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Chord Progressions

These chord progressions are great for accompanying ourselves whilst learning to improvise. All
of these chords are rootless voicings which means the root note isn’t in the chord. Don’t worry
too much if you don’t understand where these chords come from or how they are constructed.

Extra Work (optional)


If you are feeling motivated and want more of a challenge. You could practice these chord progressions in
both C minor and D minor. This would mean you have two chord progressions in each key to practice with.
Here is the notation of each chord progression in the other key.

Practice Tips
Make sure you practice playing these chords with your left hand. The reason for this is that we
need our right hand free to improvise with.
Play these chords over and over again until they seem very familiar and you don’t need to think
about them too much, this will allow you to put most of your focus soloing with your right hand.

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