Blues Piano: Mixolydian Scale Chords

Lesson Goal: To quickly internalize the Mixolydian Scale Chords used in a typical major 12 bar blues… by ear, intellect, eye, and muscle…

Table of Contents

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Prerequisites

Basic music reading skills… basic scale, chord, and chord progression theory… basic technique… the LOVE of music… and the discipline to study and practice.

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Study, Practice, & Performance Tips

1. Never play mindlessly and mechanically. Always aspire to play musically.
2. Your goal is not to merely memorize this, but to study and practice it until you internalize it using all four musical intelligences: ears, intellect, eyes, and muscles.
3. Every time you practice something, you are programming your brain. So always play accurately.
4. Practice with a Click Track or a Rhythm Track. Doing so will give you immediate feedback on any rhythmic misconceptions or places where your timing gets sloppy.
5. Record Yourself. Always. Listen to the playback immediately. And ask yourself: Is that what you intended to play?”
6. If anything feels tense or awkward, stop immediately and experiment with alternative fingerings or choreography.
7. Play this in other keys you expect to play in. By the way, once you see the patterns (which is guaranteed if you know your scales and chords) finding the notes in other keys will be a piece of cake!
8. If you feel stuck or overwhelmed, realize that anything can and will be mastered if you slow things down or break things down to small enough pieces.
9. All of this might sound like a lot of work, but it’s not nearly as much as you think. Because even though it takes time to talk about all these things, in practice they can all be done simultaneously!

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The Mixolydian Scale Chord Concept

A useful harmonic-melodic conception of the basic major Blues chords (I7-IV7-V7) is as three sets of matched mixolydian “scale-chords” or “chord-scales”. Here’s how it works in the key of C…

C Mixolydian Scale Paired with the C7 Chord

The C7 chord (I7 in the key of C) is paired with the C Mixolydian Scale…

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F Mixolydian Scale Paired with the F7 Chord

The F7 chord (IV7 in the key of C) is paired with the F Mixolydian Scale..

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G Mixolydian Scale Paired with the G7 Chord

The G7 chord (V7 in the key of C) is paired with the G Mixolydian scale…

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Putting It all Together

Now let’s play each mixolydian scale chord pairing over a typical twelve bar blues form… and notice the unique sound-feeling that each pairing creates–individually as well as within the harmonic context of the entire form…

Time and time again, you are going to rediscover that scales and chords are intimately inter-related. Knowing your chords helps you know your scales and vice versa! Understanding such scale-chord relationships–theoretically, by sound-feeling, and by visuospatial layout on the keyboard–lays a solid foundation for fluent improvisation and pays huge dividends when reading, transposing, and playing by ear!

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