Your Bands Next Gig.....I Dare You!

I realized I had yet to give a shout out to one of my favorites, Jonas Hellborg. I first became interested in his playing with John McLaughlin. Especially his use of flat 2nds and Middle Eastern scales and modes. So I started digging around to find cool videos of Jonas and I come across him playing with a trio on the streets of Bombay! OK, how cool is that! I watched the video over and over just to check the variety of human experiences going on[see video below]. The shop keeper that ignores them, the man with his arm around an older gentleman [presumably his father. Wow, spending time with and respecting the older generation], the people who are really interested [yes it's true, musicians are actually respected and admired in some parts of the world] just some how intrigued me. We seem to be so much more "sheltered" about our music in the west.

So come on, call your band mates, take out some bare bones gear and go downtown to pick out a side walk to play a few tunes. Some people are going to say stupid, rude stuff and some people are going to love it no matter how good you are. But I bet it will beat the hell out of seating in front of the TV today.

Here is one octave of my favorite Middle Eastern scales in G. Practice it in all positions and different keys.

|-----|------|------|--3--|--2--|------|-----| E
|-----|--4--|--3--|------|--2--|--1--|-----| A
|-----|------|--3--|------|--1--|------|-----| D
|-----|------|------|------|------|-----|-----| G


These are the left hand fingerings I use when playing one octave of it. This gets interesting as you connect multiple octaves and change positions.