HARMONIZED MELODIC MINOR SCALE
do you wanna write some jazzy detective show music from the 40′s or 50′s –
just play a G minor (maj7) chord and you’ll hear it.
–x—
–3—
–3—
–4—
–x—
–3—
or maybe you just want explore some jazz tonalities and take your playing to a new level?
let’s check out the Melodic Minor Scale…
perhaps you’ve also heard of a popular mode of this scale,
called Altered Dominant or “Altered”. we’ll get to that in a minute too.
first, let’s evolve a G natural minor scale into a G melodic minor scale–>
the G natural minor scale (same as Bb major)
G A Bb C D Eb F
the G harmonic minor scale (G minor w/raised 7th)
G A Bb C D Eb F#
the G melodic minor scale (G harmonic minor with raised 6th)
G A Bb C D E F#
so, now let’s Harmonize this bad boy to find out which chords the melodic minor scale creates and uses…
so if we add 3rd, 5th, and 7th harmonies to G A Bb C D E F# we get…
G Bb D F# [G min (ma7)]
A C E G [A min7]
Bb D F# A [Bb maj7#5]
C E G Bb [C7]
D F# A C [D7]
E G Bb D [E mi7b5]
F# A C E [F#mi7b5]
so, you’re chords are going to be
G min (ma7), A min7, Bb maj7#5, C7, D7, E mi7b5, F#mi7b5
how do we use this in playing music???
here’s some practical info from Larry Carlton
(Steely Dan, Joni Mitchell, Billy Joel, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, The Four Tops, the Partridge Family,)
on how to use this stuff, now that you get the above
the Altered Dominant is a mode of the melodic minor scale.
the way that jazzers use it, is to play the melodic minor scale of the note 1/2 step (1 fret) higher than the altered chord’s root note.
an “altered chord” is a dominant chord with b5 or #5 or b9 or #9, or b13 or #13.
a popular altered chord is the E7#9 (the chord made most popular by Jimi Hendrix in purple haze)–keep in mind, if you reference this, that Jimi tuned his guitar down 1/2 step (to Eb), so it’ll sound like Eb7#9 instead of E7#9.
for example, the G melodic minor scale above would work nicely over an F#7#9.
if you wanna try that Hendrix chord E7#9, you would play the F melodic minor scale.
now, beware, the nerd guitarists (nothing wrong with them by the way) will remind you that you are actually playing the E altered dominant mode of the F melodic minor scale, and that you should think of it as an E scale, rather than F, but that takes along time, and makes it sound twice as complicated. i am here to deMystify you.
but….if you break down the Altered Mode of the Melodic Minor Scale,
you’ll also notice that if you call it by the nerd-approved name, you’ll find all of the possible chord Alterations in that scale…
the b5, the #5, the b9, the #9, the b13 and the #13, check it out:
[i will take the long way here, so that you can see how we've evolved step by step on these scales]…
Ab major scale (F’s relative major) –> Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G
F natural minor scale—->F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb
F harmonic minor scale–> F, G, Ab, Bb, C, Db, E
F melodic minor scale –> F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D, E
E altered scale —-> E, F, G, Ab, Bb, C, D
-vs-
E major scale: ——–> E F# G# A B C# D#
you can see that the
F# in the E major scale (also known as the 2nd and 9th degree) –> [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 (octave),9,10,11,12,13,14,etc...]
is 1/2 step lower (F) and 1/2 step higher (G) than it was in the E major scale
same with the 5th (the B) –> in the altered scale there is a Bb and also a C (1/2 step lower and higher than the B)
and same with the 13th (same as 6th, just one octave higher) (C#)–>in the altered scale is C and D
this is why it’s used on Altered Chords and called the Altered Scale
SUMMARY AND HOMEWORK:
so, now that you know this, use the chords:
G min (ma7), A min7, Bb maj7#5, C7, D7, E mi7b5, F#mi7b5
to write some jazzy detective stuff and solo over it.
and then get super jazzy with the Altered Mode
and listen to some Larry Carlton.
