The idea for this post is the merging of an exercise I posted previously on playing 5 Pentatonic modes from a common tone (it’d probably be helpful to check it out first), with formula #1 from the book “Inside Improvisation Series, Vol. 2 – Pentatonics”, by the eminent saxophonist and guru, Jerry Bergonzi. In this book, the Gonz presents 8 different formulas (4 descending and 4 ascending, based on steps and skips up or down), for creating pentatonic lines. What we’re doing here this time is taking Bergonzi’s pentatonic formula #1 (which is (x) skip step down (x) step down … Read More
Category Archives: X-Centric
Here’s a chops building, warm up type, major pentatonic scale exercise through all 12 keys that I’ve found to be quite useful. Pentatonic Scales (defined as any scale containing 5 notes) are evident, even prominent, in many styles of music from all over the world. The pentatonic scale is probably as old as music itself! The Major Pentatonic Scale is derived from the Major Scale by omitting its 4th & 7th degrees (1-2-3-5-6). As there are 12 Major keys, there are also 12 distinct Major Pentatonics. … Read More