“Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues” is an exciting new improvisational concept I have been working on over the last year.  This book is a 444 page collection of my work on this dominant pentatonic concept and includes 52 blues exercises in all 12 keys.  The book also comes with a 113 minutes video lesson on the background of the concept, tips on how to practice the material as well as some demonstrations of some of the lines on the soprano saxophone.

Here are some examples of what the concept sounds like while improvising on a blues without any accompaniment on the tenor saxophone (there are more examples below). This whole solo is the dominant pentatonic concept but ideally you would obviously want to mix the concept into other concepts for more variation. It is pretty cool what shapes and patterns you can come up with using it………. Let me know if you have any questions. Steve

1.)These are a few one chorus samples from the book of exercises and etudes over the blues using the dominant pentatonic. (Some improv is thrown in on the last half of the clip.)

2.)This is more freestyle improv using the concept over the chords of a blues more freely. All of this is using the dominant pentatonic material with the simple addition of the b3 grace note mixed into the dominant pentatonic to give it a more bluesy effect. Technically, nothing in this 3 minute track is a blues scale although it sure sounds like it. Hope this helps. This is really a powerful concept to get down with a ton of potential!

The origins of this concept came from a lick that I picked up somewhere along my musical journey that I used quite regularly on an F7 chord.  I can’t even remember where I got this line from but it is a hip and modern sounding line that I absolutely love that uses the pentatonic scale of F,G,A,C and Eb over an F7 chord.  This pentatonic scale is commonly known as the minor 6th pentatonic scale if you were to start it on C but I found that basing the pentatonic off the root of the dominant chord was much easier for me so I relabeled this pentatonic as the “Dominant Pentatonic” which is based off of the root of the dominant chord.   I thought that if I dug this line so much, why don’t I try to use the concept it originates from over the whole blues progression and see where that leads.

Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (PDF Digital Book)-19.99

Mastering the Dominant Pentatonic Sound over a Blues (Printed Version)-39.99

I began writing down a variety of patterns using the dominant pentatonic scale and applying them to the blues progression as well as tri-tone substitutions on a blues. I was shocked by how transformed my lines sounded over a 12-bar blues.  I was playing ideas and lines I had never played before in over 40 years of playing the saxophone.  The lines sound intervallic, flowing and modern.  Here are seven examples that I took from my mouthpiece reviews over the last year as I was working on the dominant pentatonic concept using a few of the dominant pentatonic exercises from the book on a blues:

One Chorus of Exercise 1C from the Book and One Chorus Improvisation-Alto Sax (10MFan SuperNova Alto Mouthpiece Review)

The Same Exercise 1C but Slower with some Improvisation-Tenor Sax (Otto Link Tone Edge Early Babbitt Connoisseur Series Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review)

Improvisation using the Dominant Pentatonic Concept on a Blues-Soprano Sax with Reverb (Ambika 3 Soprano Mouthpiece Review)

One Chorus of exercise 1C from the Book and some Improvisation using the concept-Alto Sax (GetASax GS NEW YORK Meyer Bros Alto Saxophone Mouthpiece Review)

Improvisation using the Dominant Pentatonic concept-Tenor Sax (Johannes Gerber Vintage Slant 7* Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review)

Improvisation using the Dominant Pentatonic concept mixed in with some other elements-Tenor Sax (Macsax Jalapeño 8* Gold Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review)

Improvisation using mostly the Dominant Pentatonic concept-Tenor Sax (Lamberson J7 Tenor Saxophone Mouthpiece Review)

This book is a 444 page collection of my work on this dominant pentatonic concept and includes 52 blues exercises in all 12 keys.  The book also comes with a 113 minutes video lesson on the background of the concept, tips on how to practice the material as well as some demonstrations of some of the lines on the soprano saxophone.  I think you will find it as transformational as I have.   Let me know what you think in the reviews section below once you get some time to work on it!    Steve

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