1. iReal Pro IMPROVISATION: MODES AND SCALES JOHNATHON BOWER

2. Standards and Grade Level  Goals: Demonstrate use of correct scales while improvising over a chord progression.  Standards: NAfME 3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments; 9- 12.CT.1. Use digital resources (e.g., educational software, simulations, and models)  Students: High school jazz band; 9- 12 th grade. 16 students.

3. Scales versus Modes  All modes are scales and all scales are modes.  The modes used in basic jazz are the same as the church modes from the renaissance time period.  Every Church mode is based of off the major scale or Ionian mode. All western music up until the 20 th century is a product of the major scale.

4. The Church modes  Each Church Mode has 7 pitches, plus an eighth that is repeated on top. Each pitch is considered a scale degree.  Each church mode starts on a different scale degree of the Major scale or Ionian mode.  In order of scale degrees starting at one the modes are as follows: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian.  Aeolian is also known as Natural minor.

5. Church Modes Continued…  The other way of thinking about church modes has to do with raising and lowering certain pitches within the scale.  For example to play a Lydian mode you can start on the fourth scale degree of a major scale or simply raise the fourth scale degree of any major scale.

6. Beginning to Improvise  Each mode goes along with a specific chord while improvising.  Simply put chords are based off of scale degrees so it only takes knowing the degree of which a mode is based to play correctly.  For example the 2 nd scale degree in C major is a D minor chord, the mode that matches is the Dorian mode.  The progression we will be using is ii- V-I  Scale Degrees are written in roman numerals. (2-5-1).  Think of the chord progression as a paragraph and each chord as a sentence. This idea can be used to build musical phrases as a performer improvises a melody.  The scales and their notes make up the performers vocabulary.

7. Using iReal Pro and Its Resources  iReal Pro is a piece of software with recordings of several chord progressions.  It is possible to change the key signature to gain practice in all 12 major and minor keys.  In each recording it displays the scale(s) most commonly used with the chords.

8. Johnathon Bower is a Senior Music Education Student and an aspiring professional Trombonist.  Music examples made in Finale 2014.  Pictures are screenshots from the iReal Pro iPhone App.  Photo of myself is from an Eastern Michigan Jazz Band Performance with my mother.