Bb Blues Improvisation Worksheet (Part 1)

I always feel like the reason many people stay away from teaching jazz improvisation is because they feel like they don't know enough about it.  I can understand that.  In this post, I'm going to give you some tools you can use with the youngest and most inexperienced students as well as the ones who may be seemingly be more advanced, but still could use a refresher on the basics.  And for the teacher - you do not need any experience in jazz to be able to use these tools!  Working on the activities on this sheet will open your students up to tons of options in the beginning of their improvisation journeys. 

The program below is a very systematic approach to improvisation that is based on trying to take away the mystery about how to do it.  I find it to be a sort of "mathematical" approach that some people may believe to be too rooted in playing "right notes" and not enough about the emotion and story-telling of improvisation.  This approach is designed for large group improvisation where you have many students and not a ton of time.  It's designed to simplify the beginnings and give some definition to students who are scared to take the risk.  I have found that using this approach, I have had exactly ZERO students refuse to at least try to improvise on a daily basis, whenever they are asked to.    

By the way - so I don't bury the materials at the bottom, CLICK HERE to access the folder that includes the documents to hand out to your kids.  It includes parts for C, Bb, Eb, F, Bass Clef, Alto Clef, Piano and Guitar.  Also, the original document was provided in Bb but has also been transposed into F in case you want to explore a 2nd key.  

Part 1: The Concert Bb Blues Scale

Learning the blues scale is a simple way to start the process while introducing the idea that there is life beyond the "Major" scale.  When young students hear the blues scale for the first time, it draws them in.  If they ever played scales at all, they all sounded the same.  The sound of the Major scale is ingrained in their heads, so this new exotic sound is exciting.  (It also forces them into learning a potentially new sharp or flat along the way.)

Each instrument's sheet includes 2 different octaves of the blues scale so that students of all ability levels can find the notes that are in the range they are ready to use.  Learning the sound of the blues scale and memorizing the notes will help new improvisors feel confident about the notes they can use when you do your first improvisation over the 12 bar blues. 

What to do with this blues scale:

1. The first thing the kids can practice is playing this scale ascending and descending as whole notes.  It works out perfectly that they can play the scale exactly as written and the final note will land on the beginning of the 2nd chorus!

2. Next, have them play the scale exactly as written - in quarter notes with a whole note at the end.  Doing this takes 4 measures, so it fits perfectly into the 12 bar form if they play it 3 times.  

3. Now to have them work on swing style, they can play each note as 2 swing eighth notes.  Again, 3 times through this scale in this manner will get you through a 12 bar blues progression.

         

4. Students can choose 1 note from the blues scale and make up their own rhythms for 12 measures.  This can actually be done as a full ensemble.  Giving them the chance to try without fear of being listened to is a very powerful concept.  Many of them are willing to try if there's not fear of being judged.  Then, they realize it's not as hard as they thought and the fear slowly disappears.

5. Go around the room and ask each student to improvise on 1 note of the Blues scale for 4 measures.

6. Using 2 notes from the blues scale. improvise together as a whole group

7. 4 measures each, using 2 notes - individually.

8. Repeat using 3 notes, and so on. . . . . . 

What about the Rhythm Section?

The rhythm section - this is probably even more scary for most teachers than the improvising.  I know it was for me.  To start, the bass, piano and guitar are all capable of being melody instruments, so they can/should do the same exact thing everyone else is doing.  The drummer - you can start off very simple with them just playing beats 2 and 4 on the hi-hat with their foot OR quarter notes on the ride cymbal.  Perhaps they can do both at the same time.  If so, go for it!  If the drummer is capable of more, let them go for it, but on day 1 with a new drummer, this could be plenty.  Have more than 1 drummer?  I recommend either having them "shadow drum" on a 2nd drum set OR play vibes and do what everyone else is doing.  It beats sitting there doing nothing.  We'll talk more about the rhythm section on another post, but this is just about improvising.

Student Practice at Home:

Here is a playalong track that I created on iRealPro which includes 4 choruses of the 12 bar blues at 100 bpm.  This recording includes piano, bass and drums.  This can be used for the kids to practice all of the exercises on this sheet and beyond. 

Bb Blues Playalong

Part 2: The 12 Bar Blues Progression in Concert Bb

Not long after learning the blues scale for the first time, I think it's also important to have the students start to read and respond to chords.  This may sound advanced, but it really does not have to be.  As you see above, each measure has a chord symbol above it. (Not all of the parts have the guitar notation in it, don't worry!)  The first exercise is to just play whole notes no the root.  For simple explanation to the kids, you are just using the note written at the beginning of the chord symbol.  

Bb7 = Bb

Eb7 = Eb

C-7 = C

F7 = F

CHORD:	Bb7	Eb7	Bb7	Bb7
YOU PLAY:	Bb-----------	Eb-----------	Bb------------	Bb-----------

CHORD:	Eb7	Eb7	Bb7	Bb7
YOU PLAY:	Eb-----------	Eb-----------	Bb-----------	Bb-----------

CHORD:	C-7	F7	Bb7	F7
YOU PLAY:	C-------------	F------------	Bb-----------	F--------------

Drummer Supplement:

If the drummer is ready, let's start to add 8th notes to the ride cymbal, while continuing the hi-hat on 2 and 4.  The standard pattern that most people recognize as a swing beat would be alternating quarter, 8th 8th, quarter, 8th 8th. . . .. etc. 

To make it more interesting and give the drummer a chance to improvise too, they can move the 8th notes around to different places.  Options include but are not limited to the following:

Now, the drummer has at least 5 options of what they can do each measure, if you include just playing quarter notes as the 5th option.

Part 3: Basic Rhythm Vocabulary

The next thing I do is have the students play the above rhythms using the blues scale and/or the chord roots to reinforce the skills we learned in part 1 and part 2 and introduce some new rhythmic vocabulary.  Here is the sequence of exercises you can go through:

Blues Scale Based Exercises:

1. Rhythm "A" going up and down the Bb Blues scale, changing notes each measures.  
2. Rhythm "B" using the blues scale
3. Rhythm "C" using the blues scale
4. Rhythm "D" using the blues scale
5. Mix and match rhythms A,B,C,D using only 1 note from the blues scale.  Technically, this is their first improvisation, as they are picking the order of the rhythms and they are picking the note they want to use. 
6. Mix and match rhythms A,B,C,D alternating between 2 different notes of the blues scale. 
7. Mix and match rhythms A,B,C,D increasing the notes they can use from the blues scale (3, 4, 5, 6) changing either each measure or at any point within the measure. 

Drummer Notes:

While the drummer continues the hi-hat on 2 & 4 and the ride cymbal patterns with one hand, try playing the rhythm that the rest of the group is playing, using the other hand on the snare or a tom.  Eventually, they can move around the snare and toms within the rhythm.  This helps establish independence between the various limbs.  **If this is a struggle, they can try removing the hi-hat or the ride cymbal at any given point, leaving them with 2 different things to do instead of 3.  Eventually, they can practice "Improvising" a drum solo by doing the same thing the melody instruments are doing, while keeping the swing beat at the same time.

Chord Root Based Exercises:

1. Rhythm "A" using the roots of the chords for each measure. 
2. Rhythm "B" (Roots)
3. Rhythm "C" (Roots)
4. Rhythm "D" (Roots)
5. Mix and match rhythms A,B,C,D using the roots. This is the first improvisation they are doing while actually reading and responding to chord symbols.

Blues & Chord Root Combination Based Exercise Options & More:

• Use a combination of the exercises above to do a combination of reading chords and infusing the blues scale into their playing. 
• Feel free to allow the students to use their creativity to play other things as they wish.  After all, that is the goal of all of this, right?
• Add rhythms E,F,G,H as you wish in the same manner described for A-D.

I often tell my students that improvising is just taking notes that you already learned and rhythms that you've already played, and mixing and matching them on the spot.  They are not necessarily playing anything new - they are just playing old stuff in new combinations.

At this point, the students have learned the 6 notes from the Bb blues scale and have learned to read the chords and play the roots of each one.  They also have learned 8 different "jazz" rhythms that they can add to their vocabulary.  Already, with this info, the possibilities of improvisation are limitless and no two soloists would likely ever play the same 12 bar blues solo the exact same way.  

***I also think it is important that even though the end game is to be free to create, it's also very important to give the students the opportunity to learn to command their instruments.  I often tell the students when they are improvising that it's important that the instrument does what you tell it to do, not the other way around.  This is one of the reasons I like the structure of having a plan of attack with these exercises.  Practicing playing only two notes of the blues scale using rhythms A-H is a good set of guidelines that is realistic to achieve and helps the player learn to command their instrument.  Eventually, that command will become easier and in turn, more freeing.

If I find that enough people have benefitted from and used the info in this blog post, I'll come back with the info about sheet 2 which gives some more detail about where to go next!  Please consider leaving me a comment, emailing me at jverderese@cresskillnj.net or subscribing to this blog to let me know you are here and you are reading.  The more who look, the more I'll post!