How I’m working on the Whole Tone Scale

This is my “medium term” practice project at the moment.

Getting difficult concepts into your playing is something that often seems impossible. But for me it’s the same as getting anything into your improvisational language. It’s about consistency and looking at it in as many different ways as possible.

Here’s what I’m doing:

Picking a key each day and practising the scale up and down slowly with a drone.

Finding a pattern within the scale and playing that up and down in first position, not worrying about application yet, just enjoying the melody that comes from the pattern.

Picking a chord sequence that fits the scale, generally the V7 chord in a ii-V-I sequence, and creating a line that is semi improvised and semi worked out.

Playing the line in different keys.

Then trying to improvise over the same sequence and dropping in the line, letting different aspects of the scale come out naturally.

All of this takes up about 30 to 45 minutes of each practice session.

This approach works for any concept you might be working on. It might be a few notes from a transcription that grabbed your attention, getting an enclosure into your playing, or just playing melodically with the major scale over a ii-V-I.

Everything I teach is something I use in my own practice every day as a professional jazz violinist.

What are you working on at the moment? Drop it in the comments, I’d love to hear.

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