Tonefiend Forum

A while ago, I wrote a lesson on how I use Slonimsky's Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns. I hope some of you find it useful. 🙂

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What is it?

A book that contains 1330 different melodic patterns, with an appendix of scales and chords at the back. All the patterns are rhythmically ambiguous and all start on C. If you were to transpose them to all 12 keys, you’d have 15,960 different patterns. For all extents and purposes, it contains every possible succession of tones.

Um. What the hell am I supposed do with it?

That seems to be most people’s reactions to the book at first glance. Lots of people know that Coltrane practiced out of it, and many people bought the book for that reason alone. But it seems completely impractical. Who the hell is going to play through 1330 different patterns?

But this book is actually extremely useful. In fact, once you begin to work through the possibilities, you realize that you will never finish this book. Which, paradoxically, makes it extremely practical.

Far too many guitar books have a tyrannical disposition. “Do this exercise, play this etude, learn this scale, use this fingering.” And if you’ve spent any amount of time going through guitar instructional literature, I’m sure you’ve found that 90% of the books are poorly written, thin on useful information, and ultimately not worth the money.

Few guitar books are undeniable classics. One that would be on everyone's list is Mick Goodrick’s “The Advancing Guitarist.” I won’t spend too much time praising it, but one of the great things about it is its open-ended quality. You simply can’t finish a book like that; if you have, then you did it wrong.

There aren’t a lot of books like that out there, ones that last a lifetime. The Slonimsky book is definitely one of them. Not only is it a fantastic resource, but it compliments other books as well.

So how do you use it? Here are some ways I’ve used it.

One of the most immediate uses of it is what I call “turbulence training” on guitar. Flip to a random page, pick a random pattern, and dig in. Then flip to another page, and play another exercise. How good are you at playing an idea you’ve never seen before, even if it’s a collection of random notes?

Technique is more than just being able to play something fast (as many guitarists unfortunately believe). Your ability to reach for and play new ideas is just as much a part of your technique. One of the best ways to work on this is to repeatedly force your hands to play ideas that it’s not used to playing.

Don’t start at the beginning of each pattern every time. Skip some notes. Start at the middle. Start at the end and play backwards. You get the idea.

How familiar are you with fretboard geography? Can you play random patterns in one position? Do you always struggle in 8th position? Play lots of random patterns just in 8th position, moving your left hand as little as possible.

Play patterns on one string, adjusting octaves as needed.

Speaking of octaves, play a random pattern, but play every third note up an octave. Bit more difficult, isn’t it? Being able to octave displace at will (and in time!) is hard on guitar, but getting it solid will open whole new technical doors. Play a pattern, play the first note up an octave, the second note down an octave, and the third note as written. And so on.

What if you learned to tap some of this stuff?

Need some work on scales, triads, 7th chords, or pentatonics? (Who doesn’t?) Pick something you want to work on, like modes of major scales. Choose a position and stay there. Lots of people will go through the cycle of 5ths in one position to help them learn modes. But that has its limits, as it’s a pattern. The human brain, bless that little blob, loves to find patterns and shortcuts. But we don’t want shortcuts to become something we use to avoid truly memorizing and mastering material. So choose a random pattern from the book. The first note is C. Play a C major scale in that position. If the next note is Ab, play an Ab scale in that position.

Use the book’s random nature to your advantage. If everything is random, and there’s no pattern to be found, your brain will be forced to actually learn the material instead of trying to find shortcuts.

Do that with triads in that position, then pentatonics and 7th chord arpeggios. Play a major scale ascending, and when you start to descend, play the next scale in the pattern. Play them up and down, but switch scales every four notes.

Play a random pattern, but for every note, include the note a fourth above it immediately afterwards. Do it with fifths, sixths, etc.

As you’ve probably figured out now, you’re dealing with far more than 1330 patterns. You are, in essence, working with the vast infinity of music. Really, you can do all this work on your own. But the Slonimsky book is nice because it gives you a very controlled way to do it. And let’s face it: so often when we practice by ourselves in this way, we reach for what’s easier, what’s familiar. By using this book, it forces us to reach for things we might not be so comfortable with.

Really, the best answer to “What is it?” is “Whatever you want it to be.”

Aha. You referenced this write up at the Flophouse but I never saw a link.

(I'd suggest Jesse Gress's Guitar Cookbook as a theory-for-guitar book that isn't a particularly closed book but is a bit more grounded in showing you things expressly as a prelim and background reference for The Advancing Guitarist. Don't know that it'd be helpful for the Thesaurus, but Advancing Guitarist isn't set up as a beginner's book.)