know your scales

i posted this in a thread on facebook, and thought it was important enough to drop in here... enjoy

"i think its great to practice, study and know *all* scales. i also think that the scale that *should* be played on a certain chord should be looser than this, and left up to the player to decide from moment to moment. lets say theres a Cmaj7 chord, and the bass plays C, and the chord player maybe plays B and G... that leaves the rest of the spectrum up to the soloist. there are all kinds of scales that can be used now, really any scale with a major 7th, a root and a 5th can be used there without 'clashing', as well as other scales that might clash and still work in context with the phrase surrounding the music in question. when i see b9 chords, i usually hear/see them is as a dominant chord. lets say in the key of C minor you see - Dmin7(b5) G7b9 Cmin7 - there we have G7b9 acting as a dominant chord. the C minor scale actually does a great job describing that chord ( and actually the entire progression). modally, we can say "we are using the 5th mode of the minor scale, or G phrygian"... but, what does that mean to me? i can easily leave that scale and go with other colors at any point, and i want to be able to hear other colors and have the freedom to leave that scale (or stay on the original scale/color and really explore it comfortably). otherwise, im just memorizing what scale does what, and thats not making music, thats just playing scales. that being said, at some point, some ground work needs to be done to find these colors, and use them..."