Modes when soloing - general rule of thumb for beginners?

[mitzi]

Hi Willie,

I'm a classically trained pianist and am finding getting my head around modal soloing to be very challenging.

It's just not "clicking" in my head yet.

I was wondering if you could give beginner jazz pianists like me some rules of thumb for which modal scale to choose to go with certains types of chords.

So, for example, I've gathered that the Mixolydian goes well with Dominant 7th chords. Is that correct to think of it that way?

Or, when would I want to play an altered scale? Does it go with anything, or specifically with a certain chord only?

How about the HP5 scale. Is there any particular kind of effect or place in the music, or chord, that particularly calls for an HP5 scale?

At the moment, I'm so new to these modal scales I'm just enjoying being able to say "HP5". So anything you can throw at us would be great.

Or maybe if you have some tips for getting modal scales to "sink in"?

I listened to So What over and over again, as you said it was all modal.. I just don't even hear the difference yet between modal and non modal. Does a good jazz pianist know when something is modal and when it's not?


Thanks,
mitz