Scales in all twelve keys for trombone

It doesn’t matter if you play jazz or classical music. Being really familiar with the major scales in all twelve keys is very useful, both for improvising and reading music. You should get to the point where you don´t have to think about the notes in the scale any longer and can play it up and down while planning the dinner!

Modes of the major scale

The major scale actually consists of seven different scales, depending on which note you start on.
The modes are (in C major):
C Ionian (associated with C Major 7 chord)
D Dorian (associated with D-9 or D-6 chord)
E Phrygian (associated with Esus4 ♭9 chord)
F Lydian (associated with F Maj7♯11 chord)
G Mixolydian (associated with G7, G9, and G13 chord)
A Aeolian (associated with A-7♭13 chord)
B Locrian (associated with B-7♭5 chord)
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This exercise makes you run all the modes through in all the keys – great for finding your way around the instrument and building up chops. Of course, you can expand or decrease the range of the exercise to fit your level of performance. Just make sure that you play the scales down again, ending in a low and comfortable range.

The scales in the exercise follow the circle of fourths – that makes more sense musically to me than just moving up or down chromatically. And it makes the range vary more as well! I suggest that you play the exercise legato or with doodle tonguing.

Good luck!

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