The rock band Hell & Hollar was the winner of Making Music’s most recent Community Video people’s choice competition. Their video for the song “Showdown” received three times as many votes as the runner-up. Hell & Hollar is a rock band from South Florida featuring Blake Burns on guitar and vocals, Nate Largent on drums, Johnny […]

Alternative tunings are a fantastic way to reinvigorate your guitar playing, songwriting, and creativity. The instantly altered sound naturally gives your mind different creative ideas, and makes you play a different way as a result. And of course, many great songs are written in different tunings, meaning sooner or later you’ll encounter material you need […]

Casio has added two new models to its Celviano Grand Hybrid digital piano line – the GP-310 and GP-510. The new models boast several enhanced features, including a more powerful speaker system, improved harpsichord Tone, and an improved Concert Play mode. The GP-310 and GP-510 digital pianos were revealed in the company’s booth during The […]

Although Rovner Products’ production department had been idle since the end of March due to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan’s COVID-19 state mandate closing all non-essential businesses, in late April some of the company’s manufacturing equipment was redeployed. “In March, stories of desperate medical workers were all over the news, and we were horrified. We realized […]

Head voice, falsetto, and whistle are the three highest-pitched registers of the voice. This article will help you understand what they are, the differences between them, and how to exercise your voice within your uppermost registers. What is head voice? Head voice is the primary register you use to sing high pitches. To raise […]

Bamboo is the most sustainable choice for musical instruments. Highly renewable, Bamboo regenerates quickly without being replanted—sometimes growing up to three feet per day. The straight grain of this “grass” is actually stronger than most hardwoods. Kala’s Bamboo U•BASS is beautifully natural-looking with clean lines and bamboo from top to bottom—from the headstock to the […]

Chuck Schiele takes you through the beginning steps on how to record an acoustic guitar in stereo. Part one is a general overview for beginners on the basic thinking and process of recording, what a signal chain is, and a thing or two about microphones and mic’ing technique.

The microphone cable remains one of the most popular cable types used in audio and video production. This is true for schools and churches as well as for recording studios and live performance production. While wireless microphones have eliminated the need for some mic cables, the growth in the use….

Dave Sanborn, the veteran saxophonist, and six-time Grammy Award winner, has announced he will soon present the first episode of his new music show, Sanborn Sessions. The new series is hosted by Sanborn and features a diverse roster of accomplished artists from a variety of genres and generations. In its initial season, Sanborn welcomes Kandace Springs, […]

The Pentatonic Scale: The Secret to Improv Success

Imagine a collection of five notes that would sound good regardless of when or how you played them. Such a thing exists. It is called the pentatonic scale and it is one of the great secrets of improvisation. Creative musicians around the world, playing in many different styles, rely on these notes as a basis for their improvisations. The reason is simple: with no half steps to create dissonance, the pentatonic scale sounds good over any chord progression that stays in one key.

The pentatonic scale is similar to a major scale except that the 4th and 7th scale degrees are omitted

Here are two easy chord progressions to play with your left hand while your right hand improvises using the C Major pentatonic scale.

Tips:

Be sure to mix up the notes in the pentatonic scale. Play them in any order.

A steady beat is essential. Use a drum machine or app such as iRealPro
to keep you on track.

Vary your rhythms by using combinations of half, quarter, and eighth notes.

It is not necessary to fill all the empty space in an improvisation. Less is
more sometimes.

Articulations and dynamics add sophistication to your improvisations.

Don’t stop and don’t judge. Keep exploring until you discover licks you like.

Bradley Sowash is a composer, creative pianist, multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, author, and educator specializing in improvisation. He is the co-founder of 88 Creative Keys improvisation camps for piano students and teachers and his best-selling keyboard improvisation books are published by the Neil A. Kjos Music Company. Learn more at bradleysowash.com.

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