*Groan* This is going to hurt!

Having watched that spoken word bit of Rumi that Madonna did about 100 times now, I had to get on to something else. As was inevitable, I did a search on Tori Amos.

What I was hoping to find was "little Eartquakes". What I did find was "Crucify", another great song. I've never really played or written anything I can remember in D-Flat major, which nis apparently the key she wrote it in. This would be a good exercise for me. Besides, I like the way she writes, learning "Crucify" may let me see more of how she tends to structure things as a composer. Having found this tutorial I feel obligated to set my laptop on my keyboard and turn the amplifier on. I may find myself soaking my fingers later, if I really try to get the first piano lick down.

If you like Tori Amos and are working with a piano or keyboard, or want to see why I'm wincing a little, click here:

The Blues Scale- C Minor Pentatonic – Blues Scale in C

Before we can play the blues, we have to understand how the blues are built. The scale is a little different, including “bent” or “blue” notes.

On a piano you can hear the C minor pentatonic or C Blues scale by playing these six notes:

C – E flat- F- F sharp- G- B flat.

Like the other scales we’ve discussed, it has a particular pattern that can be moved to any root note by using the same structure of half steps and whole steps.

Respectively, the scale is built one, flat three, four, flat five, five, flat seven- but try just learning it in C first. I recommend playing up and down the scale until you are very comfortable with it, and then just noodling around with those notes. See what melodic phrases occur to you naturally and have fun.

Here's a video tutorial so you can see the scale being played.