Musica

Exotic Scales
New Horizons for Jazz Improvisation

J.P. Befumo

Exotic Scales
New Horizons for Jazz Improvisation

J.P. Befumo
SuperiorBooks.com, Inc.

Exotic Scales New Horizons for Jazz Improvisation All Rights Reserved. Copyright © 2002 J.P. Befumo No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, includingphotocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher. This edition was produced for on-demand distribution by Replica Books. Softcover ISBN: 1-931055-60-2 Printed in the United States of America Cover by SuperiorBooks.com, Inc. Copyright ©2002

FOREWORD When I first took piano lessons as a child I learned to readmusic and follow the notation on sheet music. Although I learned scales and was exposed to modes as part of my music instruction, composition and improvisation remained a mystery until my late teens when I took lessons from a jazz pianist during my freshman year in college. Even then, although I could repeat patterns that I copied from the instructor, and even modify those patterns slightly, trueimprovisation did not come easily, because I did not understand the underlying musical structure. Despite my extensive formal education, I found that I still could not create a style of my own: I simply did not have a structure that allowed me to explore options in a systematic and creative way. It was not until I studied a text on Jazz Improvisation and actually practiced using the various modesand progressions, that I began to grasp how to improvise, as well as how to add color and complexity to my playing. As a formally trained musician, I was at first skeptical of the approach propounded in Exotic Scales. After all, ‘real’ jazz players rarely approach improvisation from the perspective of applying a single scale over an entire progression. Rather, they think in terms of changing scalesand modes, and applying arpeggios over specific passages. When I sat down and carefully analyzed the results that emerge from applying these scales in the harmonic settings developed in the book, I was 5

amazed to find that this is precisely what emerges, albeit from a rather unconventional approach. Thus, as the reader works his or her way through the text and the numerous examples provided,it develops that although the player is thinking in terms of a single, easy-tointernalize scale, what is really emerging is exactly the right arpeggio, mode, or scale for each chord in the developed progression. Musical theory is a complex subject, and one that lends itself to many approaches and perspectives. Even relatively elementary aspects of the subject, such as the diatonic modes, are asubject of ongoing discussion among musical scholars. For example, while one might interpret the Aeolian mode as a diatonic major scale played from the sixth degree, another musician will insist (equally correctly) on approaching it in terms of its intrinsic step/half-step structure. In this sense, Exotic Scales abstracts what would otherwise be an extremely complex set of techniques into theirsimplest form—an abstraction that, in all honesty, had never occurred to me until reading this book. I am convinced that this is an approach that is particularly well suited to the backgrounds and approaches employed by guitarists, although it will also be beneficial to any instrumentalist seeking to enter the world of jazz improvisation. A book like Exotic Scales would have been a great time-saver inmy own musical journey. It not only presents the use of modes other than the seven basic diatonic modes used in Jazz, but also presents a basic introduction to the use of modes that would be valuable for a beginner with little music theory and for a more advanced student as a reference. I have been honored to have the opportunity to work directly with Joseph Befumo in a number of capacities and...