Are you trying to learn how to improvise with scales and patterns, but finding it hard to make yourself practice? Do yourself a favor, and practice over actual music. A student asked me to make him a playlist of harmonically static music that’s good for practicing over. I thought I would share it with everyone.
The music in this post is perfect for working out scales. Each track stays in a particular key or mode for long stretches of time, and has a slow or medium tempo. You can dig deep into the scales associated with each one without needing to worry about form or rapid chord changes. Click the links to load the aQWERTYon set to the appropriate key and scale.
The Temptations
“Papa Was a Rolling Stone” – B-flat Dorian or blues
Miles Davis
“Shhh Peaceful” – D Mixolydian (or blues, or major, or really anything)
“In A Silent Way/It’s About That Time” – slow part is E major (or Lydian, or blues), funky part is F Mixolydian (or blues, or Dorian)
“He Loved Him Madly” – C Phrygian (or blues, or natural minor, or any minor scale)
John Coltrane
“India” – G Mixolydian (or blues, or major, or really anything)
“Spiritual” – C natural minor (or blues, or Dorian, or any minor scale)
Fela Kuti
“Overtake Don Overtake” – G Dorian (or blues, or any minor scale)
“Beasts of No Nation” – G natural minor (or blues, or any minor scale)
Thelonious Monk
“Green Chimneys” – A-flat Dorian, goes to B major on the bridge
Herbie Hancock
“Fat Albert Rotunda” – F Dorian (or blues)
“Chameleon” – B-flat Dorian (or blues) – skip the strange chromatic parts toward the end
Michael Jackson
“Don’t Stop Til You Get Enough” – B Mixolydian
John Lee Hooker
“Bad Like Jesse James” – E blues (or Dorian, or natural minor)
Brian Eno
“Music for Airports” – piano section is D major, voice section is F minor, brass part is sort of in B-flat major but is too out of tune to be worth playing over
Various artists
Hip-hop instrumentals – You can figure out the key centers for these by trial and error easily enough, it’s a good exercise
Please make more suggestions in the comments!
Cool, I’ve been using Clyphx to change scales on the Push and in order to maintain the same root note I have been using lots of mixolydian, dorian, lydian, etc modes. This site is helpful to this drummer for figuring out what the heck scale I’m using https://www.scales-chords.com/scalefinder.php When I teach the kids scales, I have them solo to various pop songs and record themselves jamming in a scale. Thanks for the resource!