Simpedia

Dixie C., Washington

I’m not really sure if what I have to offer will be helpful as I’m finding it challenging to wade through your email & get the gist of what you’re asking.

However, here’s my attempt.

I’ve started this program with just a few students. In order to simplify the process with minimal lesson time, I created a chart for them to use in which they fulfill the task & check it off. Once they complete the 135 & 1357 improvs in the key of C with all three rhythmic variations, they know what to do until we get to Basic Blues w/ 13ths. So they can progress however slowly or quickly they choose. I check in with them at each lesson & have them demonstrate one or more of the tasks they completed that week to see how they’re doing.

Stephen R., California

This is a tricky question because i’m a very new SM teacher, haven’t started that program yet and also come from a place of very minimal experience in blues and even less in jazz. But, i think it’s important for students to understand how to transpose and play in different keys. When i teach major scales i want them to understand the formula (W,W,H,W,W,W,H) to derive it, not just the keys used. When i taught some students blues, but not this program, i would teach C blues as derived off the C major scale with a lowered 3rd, 5th, and 7th! That thinking could be applied to other keys like G blues and any riffs learned would use those notes!

To go back to your situation, if students are expressing interest in pursuing advanced blues or jazz they would ultimately need to learn riffs in all keys, especially if they might work with a band with a singer that sings in different keys. Their transposition skills would come into play there. Since i haven’t gotten into the SM blues program yet, I can’t speak from experience, but i would think that students should be able to improvise w blues riffs in several common keys so they understand the transposition process. Obviously, those that pursue careers with bands will rehearse before performing, but the skills and “thinking” we provide as teachers would help them. Maybe, some of this will help, but this question is really directed to Neil and other senior teachers that have completed the blues and jazz programs. Good luck!

Gordon Harvey, Australia

Hi Stephen and Mark,

Firstly Stephen, you’ll see well down the track that we handle scale very differently to conventional methods. Although we learn the formula for constructing a scale, we discover it late in the process, instead initially learning each key using shapes, rather like the way we learn major chords in the Accompaniment program. This begins late in the reading process, well after we’ve begun the Blues & Improv program, so certainly we don’t learn the C blues scale through knowing the major scale, although at some stage it would be worth seeing blues scales from that point of view. In fact, the C blues scale with its obvious shapes is a great introduction to our way of unfolding scales (or really, keys) by shape, and I always cross-pollinate from that initial conversation from the Alma Mater Blues Variation when I begin the scale/key conversation.

You’ll need to just trust the process for now, Stephen, although you might get a little taste of it by listening to my presentation “Time for More Music, Reading and Scale” in the Audio Library.

In the meantime, blues scales other than C are easily learned with a different kind of formula as you’ll see in the Blues & Improv program.

Re Blues & Improv, I haven’t actually unfolded it in the regular way with many students, mostly because I haven’t taken on many new students since that program was introduced. But generally speaking, I have to confess to being a bit slack with this program for most of my students. For one thing, to infer something from you Stephen, I think knowing blues riffs in all keys is only for those students with a particular interest in specialising on blues. Few of my students want to do this, and even if they did, I wouldn’t consider it appropriate to go down that path until well down the track, so for most students I haven’t gone into many keys so far. Also, I try to give things a context. For example, I look at exploring blues in D, both chords and scale, in level 8, because it fits beautifully with the song D-part which is a blues in D. We might start exploring D blues a few weeks before starting D-part, then start to put the two together in an arrangement – play D-part once through, go into an improv, using chords and the blues scale along with the LH of D-part, then return to D-part with some variations thrown in.

Prior to then, I might have only looked at blues & improv in say, C, G and F, maybe not even F. That’s how slack I am! I might only look at a new project in this area every three or four lessons. When I do, I always stick to the one key until they are confident with both the 1357 chords and the blues scale. I might then introduce alternative chords (step 12 in the TTP), but instead I might leave that till later. For example, in level 10 (that’s right, level 10 – did I tell you I was slack?) there’s a great song called Pauly’s Patter which, like D-part, really suits developing an arrangement, this time in G. So I might come back to the G blues and introduce some step 12 chords in that context.

When working outside the context of song arrangements, I’d recommend thinking in terms of musical projects, rather than exercises, which is why I prefer sticking with one key and doing both chords and blues scale. In other words, give the students a project like ‘G Blues Composition/Improvisation’, put it in the Playlist and have them work on it until it sounds like a real piece. That might be stating the obvious, but it isn’t necessarily suggested by the TTMs, so again, if I do things a little differently than the TTMs seem to indicate, maybe I’m just a bit slapdash, but I don’t think it’s inappropriate.

I may not have addressed all Mark’s concerns, but perhaps this might generate more discussion.

Laurie Richards, Nebraska

Ok, I’ll chime in!

First of all, to Stephen – the major scale formula comes later on, after this part of the Blues & Improv has been taught. Like the other components in SM, the language is taught playing-based FIRST, then the ‘grammar’ (or theory) portion is added later when it makes complete sense to the students (specifically, in Accompaniment Level 2, which comes AFTER the Jazz Clues program). The blues scales are mapped out visually with no attention on the blues scale formula. However, Neil does have his own simpler formula to apply to the blues scales in every key.

Mark, I think I understand what you are asking. But I feel Neil is pretty clear on the direction you would take in his B&I training materials. He addresses it in Project 9.

Here are my responses to some of your thoughts:

“Figuring out what order to present the many elements in the many keys seems really confusing because there are so many discreet chunks of the program all of which say that it’s okay to begin them concurrently with work on prior chunks.”

Just run one key through the projects in the order they are presented in the training materials. Then add another key later on and run it through the same order, concurrently with the other key. It really doesn’t need to be confusing.

“it seems like it would be more boring to cover the older ground in various other keys unless there’s particular motivation to learn how to improvise blues alongside various recordings or with other musicians, and there are no other musicians he’s got to jam with.”

Why do you assume it would be boring? You’re teaching him some really amazing blues skills, in every single key. It’s a long-term (lifelong?) project that students will just continue developing. Also, I don’t see any one auxiliary stream as an island – I think they all enhance one another in some way. Even if a student doesn’t ‘like’ blues, s/he is still benefitting from it, and the curriculum is designed to teach all of these streams, not just the ones students pick and choose as their faves.

“blues scale melodic work relies only minimally on the earlier melodic 135/7 work. Doing 135 and even 1357 in C doesn’t really arm you to be comfortable with the set of blues scale notes in C.”

I’m not sure why you are needing to see a direct correlation between the 135, 1357 projects and the later projects? In my mind, these are all different aspects of becoming comfortable with blues. I look at the early projects as baby steps – nobody could possibly fail at the 135 projects if given in appropriate doses. Then we add one element at a time to get a more bluesy sound. The 7th is added in a different way than they learned in the acc. program, so it’s a new concept and obviously important when playing blues music.

I see each project as adding to the students ‘vocabulary’ reservoir (like in C&I) – more things to pull out on the spot when improvising. The different rhythms, some blues scale notes, throwing in one of the chords here and there.

“are students really interested in blues improv in various keys, and if not, is there enough benefit to assign however many other keys once they’ve gotten the basic exposure to all the B&I elements in C. And if there is, we’re just back to the zillions possible combinations of the order in which to proceed in coordinating the many chunks of the program in the many keys so that things stay as interesting as possible.”

If we are following the curriculum as designed, then our students learn all the streams and benefit from them whether or not they realize it. They are getting tons of integrated theory from processing these projects in every key. I think that once you get into teaching the scale/key signature/theory stuff later on, this all has relevance. And in a really big-picture sense, don’t you think getting so comfortable in every key is huge? Woven throughout all these programs in SM, we’re teaching our students not to be afraid of anything musically – not 6 leger lines, nor 6 flats, nor 32nd notes, nor any particular style of music, etc. etc.

How cool is that?

Mark, I think you have once again fallen prey to your overactive analytical tendencies, God love ya. Hope something in here was useful for you!!

Cindy B., Illinois

I must have misunderstood the B&I teacher training! I thought that we were supposed to process all the skills in all the keys, ultimately. My students don’t necessarily master every skill in every key, but they at least get comfortable with many keys before adding additional rhythm. For instance, I’ll assign them a fixed riff using only singles in the key of g flat this week, and they’ll stay with that until they’re comfortable enough to improv in the same key, with only singles, then I’ll assign a new key. We stay with just singles, in however many keys it takes for them to be comfortable improvising on singles in any key I assign, and then we’ll add humpties. It’s just another stream.

I do, however, really like what Gordon is saying about thinking in terms of musical projects rather than exercises. I’ll have to think about how to change things up to make them “more real”.

Gordon Harvey, Australia

I think I’d only have students processing everything in all keys if they were keen to specialise in blues. Other students might do a few keys over an extended time, but maybe later as they’re working through the Development Program we could work through some more keys. At that time they are often working on multiple projects that unfold over extended periods, and it’s great to have quick fun projects to satisfy their hunger for new projects. Also, it makes sense to address most blues keys in later levels because it can dovetail nicely with other scale and key signature conversations which happen then.

I have an eight-year-old student just finished Foundation 2 who taught himself the blues scale in F and G by ear without my asking, and plays them over the Jackson Blues LH. He’s obviously a bluesaholic who will definitely ultimately learn his blues in every key.