JAZZ MINOR SCALE

[Bernardo Pires]

Also known as a MELODIC MINOR SCALE ASCENDING.

The JAZZ MINOR SCALE is a 7 note scale whose interval pattern is: WS (Whole Step), HS, WS, WS, WS, WS, HS. It´s used over a MinorMajor7th chord.

Let´s take the C Jazz Minor scale as an example: C-D-Eb-F-G-A-B-C.
=>WS-HS-WS-WS-WS-WS-HS
That´s it

BPGUITARPK

[Robert G. Denman]

To expand a little on the above post, let me add these
thoughts.

When you play a major scale such as in C.

(C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C)

Don't forget the concept of the relative minor to every
major. For the C major scale, the relative minor is the
Am scale (as the pure Am, that is.)

(A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A)

The previous post discussed the Am ascending melodic.
Examine the difference between that and the pure Am
scale.

In jazz improvisation, one can utilize the C major scale
tones to play over these chords: C, Cmaj7,C6,Am,Am7,
and Am9.

This is all from the little old C major scale. When you
learn major scale fingerings, you also have the
relative minor scale(pure minor) right under your fingers
in the same notes as the C scale. Just play the scale
from A to A to make it sound minor. (Am)

Try it, you'll like it.

Keep on pickin',

Robert

[Bernardo Pires]

yes Robert,. Nice comment about relative minor scale.
Bernardo

[jazzwannabe]

Thanks guys. I've been working on "My Funny Valentine" recently, and it has a Cmin/maj7 chord.

I guess I can try the C melodic minor scale in that tune now.

Mike

[mahayana]

Thought I'd bump this up, since I put the whole-tone scale over at picking exercises. Next, the Lydian flat-7 scale:

C-D-E-F#-G-A-Bb-C

Any thoughts on how to use this one?

[jazzalta]

Hi M. With this scale I'd be tempted to use it with a C7b5 specifically. It's definitely dominant sounding.

[Jim Heidinger]

Hi Bernardo and Robert!

Someone at Wholenote gave me a link here and it's good to see both of my good friends on this forum. I feel at home already!

Hope to talk with you soon,

Jim

[mahayana]

Hello, Jim.

Bernardo and Robert were active here during the first go-round, August-November 2002. You can click on their names and view all posts at their profile pages. Both are insightful and interesting people.

Hope you will still look around and offer feedback for our modest forum.

Regards. Andy

[dkaplowitz]

Bernardo said:

It´s used over a MinorMajor7th chord.

It's used over just about anything you want depending on your mood. My personal favorite is mel. minor 1/2 step up from the root of the V chord in a progression, so if you have a ii-V-I in C, play your dorian (cmaj scale) over dmin7, play Ab melodic minor over G7, then resolve back to your cmaj scale. It's all the altered notes in one scale. That's just one of dozens of really nice ways to use this scale.

My instructor just showed me a novel way to find out what to play a scale over. Take each note of the scale, and figure out what chords occur naturally off of that note within the scale. So you have c-d-eb-f-g-a-b. Take c, you obviously have c-eb-g (cmin), c-d-eb-g (c min. add9 or cmin sus2), c-eb-f (cmin sus4), c-eb-g-a (cmin add6), etc. etc. If you do this with every note in the scale, you'll have a huge list of chords that occur naturally within mel.min and all sound good when mel. minor's played over them.

Now, if I can only write a script that will do all this harmonization for me I'd be a happy man.