Scales as safe zones

A scale is a set of notes that sit well together. Pick one, stay inside it, and you can improvise without hitting a sour note. This section uses scales that live on easy-to-find keys, so you can think about rhythm and phrasing instead of hunting for notes.

Start this section in the interactive course

3.1 The minor pentatonic you already know

If you have played guitar solos you know the minor pentatonic box. In A minor it is five notes: A, C, D, E and G. On keys, all five are white keys.

Find an A: it is the white key between the second and third black keys of the group of three. From there go up A, C, D, E, G and back to A. The gaps are 3, 2, 2, 3 and 2 semitones, the same fret spacing as the guitar box.

Every note in this scale sits well over an A bass or an A minor chord, which makes it the safest place to start improvising.

Right-hand fingering for five notes: A 1, C 2, D 3, E 4, G 5. One finger per note, no stretching.
To carry on to the top A, tuck the thumb under to play E after D, then G with 2 and A with 3.

Exercises

Five notes, five fingers: Play A C D E G and back down, one finger per key. Take your time: the next note is lit for you.
Same shape, in time: After a one-bar count-in, play one note per click. Start slow; speed up once you pass.
Over the octave with a thumb tuck: A to the A above and back. Going up, the thumb passes under the hand to play E. Coming down, finger 3 crosses over the thumb to play D.
First improvisation: Eight bars over a slow broken beat in A minor. Use only the lit keys. Try short phrases with gaps between them, and repeat an idea you like before changing it. Change the backing from the menu if you want a different feel.

3.2 The black keys are a scale

The five black keys on their own form the same pentatonic shape, a semitone lower: E flat minor pentatonic (E flat, G flat, A flat, B flat, D flat). Start on the second black key of the pair and the gaps are 3, 2, 2, 3, 2 again.

Black keys are raised and grouped, so you can find them by touch and slide between them with the side of a finger. They suit quick runs and grace notes on a lead.

Treat G flat as home instead and the same five keys become G flat major pentatonic, which sounds brighter.

Fingering is loose here: 2 and 3 on the pair, 2, 3 and 4 on the group of three works for most hands.
If the track is not in E flat minor, play here anyway and transpose the clip or synth (lesson 5), or learn the track’s key in sections 4 and 5.

Exercises

Find all five: Play each of the five black-key notes once, in any order and any octave.
Black-key improvisation: Eight bars over slow pads in E flat minor. Stay on the black keys. Try sliding from one black key to the next and ending phrases on E flat.

3.3 Natural minor and the thumb tuck

Natural minor in A is every white key from A to A: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. It adds B and F to the pentatonic.

Those two need more care. F over an A bass sounds tense, so move it down to E. B sounds unfinished and pulls towards C or back to A.

Seven notes need more than five fingers, so the thumb tucks under the hand halfway up. Keep the wrist level and let the thumb travel under the palm while finger 3 holds its key.

Up: A 1, B 2, C 3, thumb under to D 1, then E 2, F 3, G 4, A 5.
Down: A 5, G 4, F 3, E 2, D 1, finger 3 crosses over to C, then B 2, A 1.
Left hand, an octave lower: A 5, B 4, C 3, D 2, E 1, then 3 crosses over the thumb to F, G 2, A 1. Coming down, the thumb passes under after F.

Exercises

A natural minor, up and down: Play the scale with the fingering shown. Watch for the tuck after C going up, and the cross-over after D coming down.
A natural minor, left hand: The same scale an octave lower with the left hand. Finger 3 crosses over the thumb after E going up.
A natural minor in time: One note per click after the count-in. The tuck is where timing usually slips, so start slow.

3.4 Dorian: same keys, brighter minor

Keep to the white keys but treat D as home: D, E, F, G, A, B, C. This is D Dorian.

Compared with D natural minor, which has B flat, Dorian has B natural: a major sixth above the root. That one note keeps the minor sound but makes it lighter. It turns up a lot in melancholic house chords and warm pads.

To hear it, play over a D bass and lean on B, resolving it to A or up to C.

In Live’s Scale MIDI effect and in Push’s scale mode this is called Dorian.
Any minor key has a Dorian version: raise the sixth note by a semitone.

Exercises

Find the Dorian colour: Eight bars over a loop moving between Dm7 and G7. Start and end phrases on D, and play the B at least three times: it is the third of the G7 chord, so it fits where B flat would clash.

3.5 Stay in A minor, transpose the sound

You don’t need to learn every key to write in every key. Play in A minor on the white keys, or on the black keys, then move the result with clip Transpose in Live, the track’s Pitch device, or the synth’s transpose setting.

A minor and C major use exactly the same notes. So do E flat minor and G flat major. What changes is which note feels like home.

To work out the transpose amount, count semitones from your home note to the track’s key. Going down is often shorter: A to F is down 4.

Live’s Scale MIDI effect can also move wrong notes into the key, which is a handy safety net while you get used to other keys.
On Push, the in-key layout does the same job: only scale notes are on the pads.
Transposing is the shortcut. Sections 4 and 5 teach every key, so you can play in the track’s key without it.

Exercises

Transposing questions

← Fingers and time All sections Every key, part 1: the black-key ladder →

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