Blues in E on Chromatic - Part 3

In the first two installments, you found the tonic (home) note E and the dominant note B and played them over a 12-bar progression.

In Part 2 you found clusters of neighboring notes that were in adjacent holes and played in the same breath direction:

Tonic note: Blow 2 (E) and neighboring Blow 3 (G)

Dominant note: Draw 4 (B) and neighboring Draw 3 (A) and Draw 5 (D).

Now it's time to connect those two clusters of notes into a 5-note scale.

Try playing this sequence:

Blow 2 -> Blow 3 - > (play these notes on a single continuous blow breath)

Draw 3 -> Draw 4 - > Draw 5 (play these notes on a single continuous draw breath)

Blow 6

Now try it in the opposite direction:

Blow 6

Draw 5 -> Draw 4 - > Draw 3 (play these notes on a single continuous draw breath)

Blow 3 -> Blow 2 - > (play these notes on a single continuous blow breath)

Play this pattern until it's familiar, then start on Blow 6 and play the same pattern from Blow 6 up to Blow 10 and back down.

The notes you're playing form an E minor pentatonic scale (E G A B D).

You can play a surprising amount of stuff with nothing but this scale. Try using it to improvise over a 12-bar blues.

Think of this scale as a skeleton scale. You can flesh it out with added notes to create a six-note blues scale and then build it up to a combination major scale and blues scale that will work for nearly anything you want to play.

All that stuff will start in the next installment. For now, play around with just this skeleton scale, and also try this exercise to give you more fluidity with the scale.

(B = Blow, D = Draw)

Triplets:

UP:
2B 3B 3D / 3B 3D 4D / 3D 4D 5D / 4D 5D 6B / 5D 6B 7B / 6B

DOWN:
7B 6B 5D / 6B 5D 4D / 5D 4D 3D / 4D 3D 3B / 3D 3B 2B / 3B 2B 1D / 2B

Tip: Try playing each triplet by itself, repeating it several times. Also, try playing this exercise starting on 6B instead of 2B.