TJ,

I understand the "shapes" thing. When I started college as a music major, I was the only one in the class who didn't know how to read music. I didn't even know Elephants Got Big Dirty Feet. What I did know were shapes on the guitar. These shapes and the way they related to each other were my alternate "music theory". I ended up being one of three people in our class who aced all our theory programs. The other two were classically trained pianists, good players but they couldn't jam the blues.

Did you ever check out the Lydian Chromatic system for Jazz? Lydian gives you a "leading tone" for the 5 as well as the 1; the chromatic element lets you "noodle" around. I use it for jazz bass solos. I'm a slow bass player and a neophyte jazzer. When they would throw me a solo, I used to freeze. Now I start with a #4 and throw out a chromatic run and it even fools the sax players.

You've got to know your limitations. I don't know what your limitations are. I found out what mine were when I was twelve. I found out that there weren't too many limitations, if I did it my way. -Johnny Cash

It's only music.
-niteshift

Mike Dunbar Music