Here’s another super interesting video from Hal Galper. Perhaps a little controversial in jazz education but I think he makes a very interesting case. This idea really helped to make my improvisation skills more secure and helped more generally with how to practise improvisation.
The key points of his argument.
- Chord scale relationships are a bogus way to teach jazz and improvisation!!
- Chord scales simplify and approximate what is happening in improvisation and serve as study material for jazz teachers and students but don’t really get to the root of what improvising is about.
- The root of improvising is embellishing a melody, “let the melody be your guide”
- Scales are a closed system so not good sources for creativity because they have limited possibilities.
- A melody has infinite possibilities for embellishment. A scale has a limited amount of possible permutations.
I think it’s still important to learn the relationships between chords and scales as part of understanding harmony and tonality more generally. But this approach opens up a more creative way to improvise with melodies and chord sequences. It allows you to use the melody as your anchor (which is helpful for the listener as well) but it also allows you to be more free with how you interpret a chord symbol. So you could perhaps substitute different minor scales for a given minor chord or use more exotic scales and approaches fitting with the minor chord which will give the music more colour.