I went to the Peaks Jazz Festival down by Lehi, attending some of the clinics put on by the guest artists, and also the Saturday night concert. The improv clinic by Ed Calle was pretty good, his emphasis was on learning the chord scales inside and out at lightning speeds. He talked about the importance of the melodic minor scale, and how its modes provide a scale for just about any chord. For me, learning scales never helped me to improvise - you've got to learn a vocabulary of licks and patterns, which are based on the scales. Practicing licks, repetition, repetition, repetition....thats the only way I've learned to improvise. Its just like learning a foreign language - constant repetition of word, phases, sentences. I also went to the Jody Espina clinic on mouthpieces, and it was very informative, almost convinced me to try a Jody Jazz mouthpiece. Someday I might try something else out, but I love my Ernie Northway hard rubber mp. The concert was incredible, each of the bands in Caleb Chapmans program performed, so you got some funk/soul, some ska, some big band swing, some ethereal jazz combo, all joined by the guest artists. The energy and tightness just blew me away. Hard to believe that they were all Jr. High and High School age kids.