Wednesday, July 31, 2013

What Did You Miss This Week? (Week 322 #366

More Pentatonic Scales!!!

The YMM newsletter hitting on Wednesday means the editor is out of town again! Thanks to B1 Blues Crew reporter Corporate Kirk for this summary of Shoji's lesson Monday - more on how to make music with five notes!

With Joe out another week, Shoji Naito dug even deeper into pentatonic scales. This week's discussion focused on the minor pentatonic scale. Shoji's handout outlines how to play this scale in 3rd position on harmonica in the key of D. He reminded us that the root and fifth are the most important notes when improvising using the minor pentatonic scale.

To illustrate this point, Shoji had the B1 Band play three different instrumentals:

1) A slow, one-chord tune in D minor
2) A mid-tempo, one-chord song with a triplet feel in D7
3) Another slower tune with several, random chord changes from Shoji's guitar in D

The exercise? Have each harmonica player go around the room and try improvising using the minor pentatonic scale in 3rd position with these three different scenarios as your backing tracks. By the end of class, each player felt pretty comfortable with their minor pentatonic chops! Proof once again that when you stay true to the scale when you improvise - especially sticking with the root and the fifth notes - you can play along with many different songs.

Tickets On Sale Now - Chicago Blues Harp Bash #6!!!

Chicago Blues Harp Bash website is updated, the poster is in the works and tickets are on sale now!

September 22, 2013, 6pm, in Szold Hall at the Old Town School of Folk Music
 
Johnny Sansone
from New Orleans will headline! Sansone is a powerful singer, low-down blues harp player and a well-respected songwriter. As a matter of fact, his song The Lord Is Waiting and the Devil Is Too was a Blues Music Award Song of the Year winner. He isn't often in Chicago and we're proud to be bringing him here for you!

Our terrific local harp players are Zoe Savage, Tall Paul Sabel, Scott Dirks and Grant Kessler.

The bandleader this year is Shoji Naito and he's lined up Mike Scharf on bass and Mark Fornek on drums.

Mark your calendars - it's going to be a hot show!

Class Notes
  • Joe will be back next week but Shoji will be away. Grant's on guitar and will do his best - not the best week for complicated, chart-reading kinds of songs!
New Joe Filisko Release!!!

Check out Joe on this new CD and DVD release with Glenn Kaiser:

Glenn Kaiser and Joe Filisko Live

Take Two!!!

Last week's Quote of the Week was mis-attributed. Thanks to Patrick Knight for his insight and apologies to Patrick Phillips:

“There are elements of the song I'm comfortable with today I didn't even know existed a month ago.”

- B1 student Patrick Knight on his recent growth

- Grant Kessler, B1 Blues Crew