seeking jazzy scales

Looking for jazzy-sounding scales in the vein of Stanley Jordan...and also those dreamy type of fusion scales that Eric Johnson uses. Tabs of the scale would be great.

Thanx,

Finger Cruncher

*coughs, grabs microphone, turns it up to 11*

There isn't Jazzy Scales!!!
Jazz is the combination of advanced chords voicings, with melodic lines that keep switching between scales.
What will make your lines 'jazzier' is adding some arpeggios and chromatic notes in your lines...
Exemple:
Bluesy type of feel.

-----5--8--5------------------
---5--------------------------
-5-----------------------------
--------------------------------
---------------------------------
--------------------------------
Jazzy type
-----45-8--5------------------
---45-------------------------
45-----------------------------
--------------------------------
---------------------------------
--------------------------------
Those notes aren"t in a scale, but it does sound jazzy, if you play those 4s on upbeats.

You need to look at the chords you're playing before the scales.

Although if you're just lookin gfor a general idea about something..

You can play a major or lydian scale over say, major, 6th, and 7th chords. Dorian over minor 6th, minor 7ths, mixolydian over major...yeah.

That's the great thing about jazz; All rules of standard music are stripped away. You have to make something good, out of basically nothing. The best musicians on this planet are Jazz Musicians.

~Incidents

TRUE TRUE TRUE FINALLY SOMEONE WITH THE TRUTH! Yes the best musicians in the world are jazz musicians and every time i hear Miles Davis or Johny Mac i think 'How the **** do they do that?'

Well making something out of basically nothing is something that you have to do with all the arts. Jazz isn't the only one. The difference between Jazz and Classical ideas is what lali said, advanced chord voicing and how chords are harmonized. Rules of Construction are basically the same, and it's not forbidden to apply those Jazz ideas to other forms of music. One scale that is most applicable in Jazz is the Jazz Melodic minor (melodic minor), or any of it's modes.

Remember, Jazz theory like Classical theory is only the study of how things were worked out in the genre. Like how one chord worked in a particular progression, not how they must work. The musician makes the music good, not the music genre.

I'm proud of you for going after jazz. Because jazz is, to me, the most difficult form of music to play. I don't really like it very much myself, not because it's difficult, but because the sound never agrees with me...

The best way to grasp the idea of jazz soloing is to listen to some Wes Montgomery and find some transcriptions to the solos. Try to figure out how and what scales he's using.

Thanx for the replies guys.

Well, this thread certainly hasn't cleared up any confusion. Lalimacefolle, you say there's no jazzy scales per se, but then Noticingthemistake mentioned the 'Jazz Melodic minor'. So that is a jazz scale, is it not? Overall, I consider myself a very advanced guitarist and I know scales out of the ying yang but obviously my theory isn't up to par. It could already be the case that I know of the melodic minor scale already, but am not aware of it. This is where some tablature could clear things up. Sorry for asking the wrong question then. Perhaps more appropriately, I should have asked, 'What can I do to make my playing sound more jazz oriented?' Lalimacefolle mentioned arpeggios. Yes, I've heard some beautiful jazz arpeggios before. So, who has some they can share?

I have a second question that is unrelated. When soloing, what is the best way to switch between scales that still share the same root. I find jumping between scales (ie. Phrygian, ionian, mixolydian) doesn't necessarily sound good (despite the fact that they share the same key signature) because they still work with different notes. I guess my question would be which scales flow more naturally between each other? I consider my soloing quite solid, but I'd like to incorporate different scales.

Yeah. But you have to keep in mind that Jazz doesn't use one particular scale throughout the entire composition. I'm sure you've heard the idea that Jazz music is composed of playing different scales over different chords as they progress. So you may use the Mixolydian scale over one chord then the next chord you may use the Dorian scale.

The melodic minor (jazz melodic minor) is just the minor scale with a raised 6th and 7th. To play jazz, a good head start is to take a common chord progressions, I-V-I-IV-I but use more advanced voicing. Two chords that sound jazzy per say are 6th chords and 13th chords.

When you say they have the same root, I'm guessing your using one scale over half the length of one chord, and another scale over the second half of that chord. Otherwise, you're going to have to change the root of the scale to match the root of the chord your playing over. This is what I meant about using different scales over different chords in jazz. When your looking for a compatible scale for a chord, all you have to look for is that the scale and the chord contain the same notes. So if the chord is a C major 7 chord, any scale with C, E, G, and B in it will work. As an example 2 scales that work with the same root would be C major and C Lydian. SO you could use both these scales over one C major 7th chord, or you could chose between either to be played over a C major 7th chord. Once the progression changes and the C major 7th goes to another chord, you will change the scale to fit the next chord (jazz).

If your looking for new scales to mess with, try checking out some of the more exotic scales. The Hungarian scales, gypsy scales, and eastern scale are intriguing.

I've been teaching myself some of the jazz ideas lately after Alan Holdsworth gave me that 'How in God's name does he do that?' feeling. No i'm not on about his fast playing, his scales defeat my completely when I try and figure out how he changes from one to the next and over what chords. one site I found in my search was http://www.jazzguitar.com that has some interseting beginner-lessons for jazz, although it helps if you know your theory.

Guys, here's an idea for you:
visit my section of my brother's website http://www.classaxe.com
go to "Friends" and then "andrew f." ignore ancient texts and follow links to my scales resource page.
To the best of my knowledge scales afinity tables are my own invention and have never been done by anyone else. bloody simple idea but potentially Feel free to use the idea but if anyone steals it and markets it I will consider that to be bad faith and break wind in their general direction with much gusto! I sweated blood over doing all that work by hand and consider it to be my single biggest achievement in a life amply endowed with woe and mediocrity.

I'm no jazzer, I don't know a 5th of the scales here but I do know that this could be very useful.

One other point about the jazz melodic minor scale:
it's the only scale which can be substituted into circles of 4 and 5 without adding extra changes to the process.
That's hard to explain but observe the below and it will be simpler to understand.

CDEFGABC (C Maj)
DEFGABC#D (D melodic Minor) or GABCDEF#G (G Maj)
DEF#ABC#D (D Maj)

jazz Melodic minor is the only scale which has only one note different to two different major scales, this is partly because it is symetrical (Think of it as a Dorian sharp 7th, Dorian is symetrical)

Melodic Minor is a name sometimes given to an odd scale idea in which a Natural Minor scale with sharpened 6 and 7 is played going one way and just a minor when going the other. Why this is the case I don't know. I think it's crazy! A scale name should reflect the identity of its notes, esp, when two bloody notes change!

try out Harmonic Major, it's a hard scale to make chord progressions from (I found a good one once) but it's a great for melodies.

Another interesting fact:
Intuition would tell one that scales which are most similar to major scales would sound most pleasing to the ear. compare Hungarian Gypsy (forget the mode, maybe this isn't the nominative mode) BCD#EFGAB and B Bhairava (aka "oriental") BCD#EFG#AB. I think the later, despite being two notes different to the Major scale is more consonant sounding. it's a nifty scale to stir up some some serious angst during an only ordinarily harrowing A harmonic Minor (ABCDEFG#A) shred!

Hope I named them correctly, not to do so would be embarrassing!

Hope this interests.