Jazz Guitar Practice Idea 7

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Hi guys (and girls, hopefully too), cats, and kittens. I’m thinking I may post these guitar practice ideas more regularly. Just to share, as some people ( guitarists in particular ) told me they get some value from them. And it’s stuff I often write down anyway, either for my students or for my own creative explorations and practice routines, so why not share them? And I may implement some consistency for these posts—once a week or twice a week on specific days. I will announce this in 1-2 weeks. (You may notice my grammar is getting better. As for my other ventures and this one, I did start to use a grammar checker too. Just so those who actually know the English language well don’t have to cringe as much. 😉 Well, some mistakes may still sneak in. Apologies…)

Ok, so today’s post is about yet another way to practice scales.

So, as I was fiddling around the melodic minor scale again, more specifically mode 6, Half-Dimished or Locrian with natural 2nd.

So there are so many ways to practice scales. Often times, you just want to combine 2 things that you want to work on and consider either a weakness or just something you want to implement into your musical language and spend more time on. Scale practice ideas can be 3 to 4 note patterns. Simply note by note (in a C major scale example, a 4 note pattern would be CDEF, DEFG, EFGA, etc.), then you can go through all the intervals in the scale (3rds, 4ths, 5ths, etc.) and play them all over the neck. Then play all the triads in the scale, then all the 7th chord arpeggios, and so on. 

And then some things on top, like in my previous post, implementing some rhythmic ideas.

There is of course unlimited possibilities with creative mind.

Here’s one you maybe haven’t tried before: the 136 pattern. On a scale of C major, it would be CEA, DFB, and EGC. Of course, this can be played as chord voicings as well as arpeggiated single-note patterns (the fingerings and uses would be different). Here is a visual representation of music and tab notation for the C major scale, and this pattern is played as chord voicings.

Modern chord voicings and practice ideas for guitar
Modern chord voicings and practice ideas for guitar
136 chord voicings in C major scale.

The same concept is now applied on a different scale. I will use mode 6 from the C melodic minor scale.

melodic minor modes for guitar - creative ways to practice jazz guitar
jazz guitar modern voicings exploring melodic minor modes
melodic minor scale mode 6 – jazz guitar 136 triads

Thanks so much for checking it out!

I hope it helps.

Nora