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registerFusion Frollicks - Outside Dominants Part 1
Now that you know all the Blues (Hexatonic), diatonic modes and melodic minor scales, we can now look at how to use them over a dominant or 7th chord. This lesson is in 2 parts because of there is a great deal you can do with a dominant chord and there’s a great deal of theory surrounding it. Dominant chords appear in 2 main varieties, Static and Functional. A dominant chord normally resolves to its 1 chord. This is because the whatsit of the 7th becomes the doo dah of the 1 chord and vice versa. Simple!
Without the corduroy breeks and dishevelled beard Open University explanation, Static dominants tend to be just one chord grooves and have simple extensions like 9th, 11th, and 13th. Functional dominants are normally moving towards the 1 chord i.e. G7 to Cmaj7, but they have altered notes and extensions like b5, #5 or b9, #9 etc which becomes very common when moving to a minor chord i.e. G7#5#9 to a Cm.
So for the first lesson lets imaging you’ve been trapped in a musical time machine and find yourself in a wee studio playing a G9 chord at a medium tempo funk groove with the keyboard player playing a Rhodes through a Wah Wah wearing polyester flared trousers, big medallion and a ridiculous hat with an ostrich feather sticking out the top! Yes your playing PORN MUSIC!
Never mind you can distract from the onscreen ‘plumers’moustache by throwing in some outside licks. Lets begin with the simple blues scales over a simple vamp. You can play 4 blues pentatonics based on the Rt, 2nd, 5th and 7th of the dom7th chord. So if our chosen dominant chord is a G7 what would the 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 7th be?
Of course it’s the G, A, D and F blues scales. We’ll take the Rt and 2nd for the purpose of playing over a static dominant first. In the following excercises we will deal with G and A blues scales and their resulting melodic minor mode relations, the Lydian b7 and the Mixolydianb6.
As with all outside ideas, play them tastefully and sparingly (ish). It does create a wee bit of musical entertainment when used in certain dominant groove based funk vamps. Listen to guys like Scott Henderson or Mike Stern for inspiration.
Anyone want a Lydian b7 Car Wash???? © Nick Andrew 2007
Example 1
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First, listen to how the G blues sounds. If we use G7 as a starting point then we will be superimposing a G blues scale over the top.
It’s got a bluesy but sophisticated kind of sound, and that Db is the wild card. Apart from the minor 3rd (Bb), it’s the only note in the G blues that doesn’t appear in the mixolydian scale (the dom 7th’s natural scale).
Example 2
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Lets apply that Db to a mixolydian. Db is the b5th of G so this scale becomes a mixolydian with a b5 or to give it it’s sexier name, a Lydian b7 or Lydian dominant scale. (The b5 is the same as a sharp 4th which is the sonic charicteristic of the lydian mode, hence the reason the scale is named after lydian)
NO! I hear you cry! Not another scale to learn?? Don’t worry! If you know all the melodic minor modes then it’s number 4. If we are playing a G Lydian b7 then it’s the 4th mode of the D melodic minor modes. Alternatively if your not up to speed with your mel min mode shapes just play the D melodic minor over the G7.
Example 3
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Now, let’s try the Blues scale based on the 2nd of the dom 7th, which if the chord is G7, would be A blues scale. Make sure you make G the target note of the scale as the A will sound unresolved. Do you hear the Eb bending your ear?
Example 4
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Well if we follow the same track as before and add the Eb to a mixolydian scale we get a (don’t panic!) mixolydian b6, which is the 5th mode of the C melodic minor scale. You could of course play the C melodic minor itself!
