• Learn How to Play Traditional Scales

    In this lesson, we’re exposing you to long-established scales in music that every serious musician should learn.

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    Shortcomings of the Natural Minor Scale and the Origin of the Harmonic Minor Scale

    Learn the shortcomings of the natural minor scale and the origin of the harmonic minor scale, which was introduced as solution.

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    Here’s a quick and easy way to solo over chord progressions

    solosmall.jpgLately, I’ve been having a good time talking about minor keys, scales, and chords! And today, I’m going to show you how to actually use one of the minor scales we’ve been talking about in real-life situations.

    Theory is great! It helps you to understand the “what” and “why” behind things. But I’m going to show you how it also allows you to systemically pick what scales to improvise with over certain progressions. It’s not guesswork. There’s actually systems behind a lot of it…

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    Have you learned these harmonic minor seventh chords yet?

    harmonicchors-small.jpgI promised you that I’d cover the seventh chords of the harmonic minor scale next so here we go!

    First, let’s review how we came up with the triads. We started with our C harmonic minor scale (which is essentially the same as the natural minor scale except that the 7th tone is raised a half step).

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    What everybody ought to know about melodic minor scales

    secondary dominantLately we’ve been talking about minor scales. Yesterday, I introduced the harmonic minor scale and how easy it is to play when you know your natural minor scales.

    Today, I’ll go a step further and teach you how to form the melodic minor scale.

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    The secret to playing harmonic minor scales

    advancedmusiciansmall.jpgSo by now, you’re probably familiar with how to create minor scales. When I say “minor scale,” I’m usually talking about the natural minor scale (the most common). Sometimes, the “natural” part makes all the difference when you’re differentiating between other types of minor scales like the “harmonic” and “melodic.”

    And that’s exactly what I want to talk about today… the harmonic minor scale.

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    Now you can play salsa without learning any new chords

    Yesterday, I posted 4 new instructional clips from our new salsa course.

    Because I was sitting in a conference session, I didn’t have much time to talk about the clips — so what I want to do today is actually break down my favorite of the four…

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