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Internalizing Scales/Chords

#5
Beginner Bass said:
I'm having trouble internalizing my scales and intervals. I mean how they sound, not what the notes are. What's a good method for doing this?
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Doing scales in scale order will always sound like a scale exercise. Getting a scale to sound like music, well, that takes a little more than just running the scale. Melody is the goal. How do we get melody? IMO it starts with chord tones. As the melody line and the chord line should share some of the same notes, if we let the chord line - which is already moving the verse through it's rest, tension, climax, resolution and return to rest journey, if we follow that, half our work is already done. IMO let the chord progression take us to melody. Forget about being trapped in a cookie cutter format. There are enough choices to forgo this problem. That's why pentatonic scales (3 chord tones and two safe passing notes) over the chord changes work so well.

Try gathering your melody line from one major scale placement right at first. That is the important thing that holds the following together.

Key of C -- major scale pattern placed at the 3rd string and the 3rd fret then......
1 - C = 1-3-5 - CEG. Notice the skip a tone....
2 - Dm = 2-4-6 - DFA Yes same skip a tone....
3 - Em = 3-5-7 - EGB
4 - F = 4-6-8 - FAC
5 - G = 5-7-2 - GBD here you have a choice of a 2 or a 9.
6 - Am = 6-8-3 - ACE same here 3 or 10?
7- Bdim = 7-2-4 - BDF and then here is it the 9 and 11 instead of the 2 and 4. your choice.

Our goal in melody is to blend the melody line with the chord line. As the chord tones from the I, IV and V chord contain every scale note in the tonic I scale the 1-3-5 -- 4-6-8 or 5-7-2 intervals of the scale give you all you need for the melody. I have found that blending 1-3-5 into 4-6-8 is the challenging part of this. Your movement over chord changes should be seamless - and work with the lyrics - don't forget about the lyrics. Still working on this. The old tried and true - two notes close together then a leap of at least a 3rd is always good. The art comes in with what you do after the leap.

Weave in the ii - 2-4-6 and the vi 6-8-3 into your melody for some color and see if this opens some doors.

This all came from [Invalid or Expired Link Removed] and the other two lessons - part two and part three - google can take you to them.

Have fun.
 
#9
SING what you're playing. When you are studying arpeggios, sing the note BEFORE you play it. Before you play it so you're really listening, not just following. Even better is Jerry Jemmott's "say, sing, play" nmethod. For an Amin7 arpeggio the process is

1. Say "The root of Amin7, which is A".
2. Sing the note- fix the pitch in your head.
3. Play the note, listening closely and correct your sung pitch.

Repeat for each note as you work the arpeggio ascending and descending over at least two octaves. This works with scales, and lines too. For example, if you say "the root twice, then down to the b7, back to the root, up to thw fifth, then the flat fifth, then the fourth, down to the flat 7, hammer on to the root, then the flat 3, and back to the root", singing each note BEFORE you play it, you'll quickly internalize that classic riff.

Yeah, it's time consuming and slow. But if tyou do this diligently, you'll KNOW the scale, arpeggio, lick, whatever. And that's much more useful merely being able to physically execute the fast.

John
 
#10
Beginner Bass said:
OK. I'll try giving some examples of what I am trying to do:
  • Recognize different kinds of chords (i.e. differentiate C from C+, C-, Cdim, C7, etc.)
  • Recognize different types of scales (i.e. Differentiate C- scale from a C Maj scale)
Is this a bit more helpful?
Click to expand...
Good luck chords are perhaps the hardest to identify. See if this helps. http://www.musictheory.net/exercises
 
#12
singing is a very good idea. another great idea is buying yourself a cheap keyboard and learning how to form chords on it. piano/keyboard training is fantastic for those who need some remedial ear training. you don't even have to be good at it. you just need to know how to form chords and scales.
 
#17
I was wondering the same thing a few days ago. I've got a program called Band In A Box. If I'm doing an exercise, let's say on, C-7, I program the BIAB to play the chord softly over my speakers while I do the scales or whatever. That way I'm matching the scale with the sound of the chord. I just started this a few days ago.
If you don't have BIAB, maybe you could play chords on a guitar or piano and them loop them. Don't know if it's going to help me yet.
 

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