Basic Scales with Root A

Series Summary

Music has always been a part of all of us as human beings. This being the case we have devised ways to write it, read it and of course play it. We have developed terms for every musical scenario that might occur and ways to teach all of this as well. Things like minor and major, 7th chords, intervals and chords are all great examples of the way we like to organize things as a species. Improvisation is a great example of the speed at which our brains work. Very popular among jazz players, improvisation is a great tool to test your knowledge of the instrument as well as let go of some of the rules.

Part of improvisation is understanding the theory of scales and modes. In this free video series, watch as great jazz musician Ryan Larson teach all about the different scales with the root of A. Learn the pentatonic, blues, bebop, hexitonic, diminished, harmonic minor, altered, whole tone, Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian scales. Let the experts at ExpertVillage help you improve your improvisational skills with this easy step by step video piano lesson.

Video Transcript

"So today we are going to take a in depth look at all the scales that can be drives using the root of A. We are going to start with some nice melodic scales for you to utilize in your playing including the pentatonic scale, the blue scale, the diminish scale, the whole tone scale and even a couple of little extras scales in there. Then we are going to conclude todays section utilizing the 7 modes of the major scale. So the major scale has 7 degrees to it starting 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 and each one of these degrees has its own name Ionian, Dorian, phyrian, Lydian, mixolydian, aeolian, locrian. So we are going to go and look at these moves and see how they drive and the special qualities of these modes that are altered from the major scale to show you how they are used and you can utilize them in your own day to day playing for impropriation and composition. "