Originally Posted by: manXcat

Concise written précis. Thank you. Reaffirms and reinforces in part Helen's short but helpful pragmatic broad brush delivery on the topic here which resonated with me on a (musically) sensual and spirtitual level.[/quote][p]She demonstrates some good, practical examples of how to develop musical phrases from scale patterns. Interesting how she points out that simply playing a scale without creating motifs (musical ideas or phrases) in boring & robotic. It's true, but unfortunately in some people's minds that adds up to "scales are bad".

But then she immediately shows that she is very well aware of, can play & use the various pentatonic boxes/patterns. But she shows how to use them to make musical phrases & ideas! Well done!

The lesson here is that scales are essential, but not ends in themselves.

[quote=manXcat]A similar analogy I'd relate occurs in aviation RT comms where, one of the purposes of rote set phrases beside standardisation and minimisation of frequency occupation per communication is that they inadvertantly serve anticipation of what's coming.

Good example. Perceptual ease & conceptual clarity. Precise & concise, maximum brevity, zero filler. Especially important since so much is at stake when flying a plane!

Good observations, thanks!