This is in response to Sune's post concerning the ability to play a C maj scale against an A min chord. I have provided a sample clip and a sheet of notation below that I hope will help to illustrate my point. I apologize for the crappy notation! My software doesn't write scores very well. But it should suffice for this example as I'll attempt to explain in future posts as we go along.
The first 4 bars are based on your diatonic C maj scale. The rest utilized various harmonic extensions.
Clip:
This is not supposed to represent a well thoughtout solo. It's just to give you a feel of how extended modal textures would sound against your particular chord of choice.
As I've stated in previous post, when it comes to selecting modes to play against chords, diatonics can get dangerously close to plain old boredom! When faced with these choices however, it helps to have knowledge of chord substitution as well as a complete knowledge of chord extensions.
Inspect the chord Am (ACE) or Am7 (ACEG). If I invert the chord then I get C6 (CEGA). You could say therefore that C6 and Amin are practically the same chord. Now I'm thinking Cmaj triad w/ a 13th added (A being the 13th of course). This opens up a whole new world of tonal possibilties for the soloist. This is because now instead of just thinking in terms of minor tonalities (dorian, harmonic/melodic minor), we have added the additional possibilities of introducing Maj7th & Dom 7th possibilities.
C6 or CEGA says nothing about the 7th, 9th or 11th in the harmonic scheme. Therefore this leaves these possible extensions to the interpretation of the soloist. So now I'm free to introduce any of the following into my melodic scheme.
Bb = for Dom7th sound (jazzy/bluesy)
B = for Maj7th sound (jazzy/mellow)
Db = for Dom7b9 sound (jazzy/bluesy)
D = 9th (jazzy/bluesy)
D#(Eb) = raise 9th or (Dom7 alt bluesy sound)
F = Dom7(11)
F# = Dom7/Maj7 raise 11th
The idea is to take advantage of all of the possible harmonic colors that can be layered on top of our C maj tonality (which really is Amin). That includes all of the possible alterations( b5, +5, dom7, maj7, b9th and so on ).
The first 4 bars are based on your diatonic C maj scale. The rest utilized various harmonic extensions.
Clip:
This is not supposed to represent a well thoughtout solo. It's just to give you a feel of how extended modal textures would sound against your particular chord of choice.
As I've stated in previous post, when it comes to selecting modes to play against chords, diatonics can get dangerously close to plain old boredom! When faced with these choices however, it helps to have knowledge of chord substitution as well as a complete knowledge of chord extensions.
Inspect the chord Am (ACE) or Am7 (ACEG). If I invert the chord then I get C6 (CEGA). You could say therefore that C6 and Amin are practically the same chord. Now I'm thinking Cmaj triad w/ a 13th added (A being the 13th of course). This opens up a whole new world of tonal possibilties for the soloist. This is because now instead of just thinking in terms of minor tonalities (dorian, harmonic/melodic minor), we have added the additional possibilities of introducing Maj7th & Dom 7th possibilities.
C6 or CEGA says nothing about the 7th, 9th or 11th in the harmonic scheme. Therefore this leaves these possible extensions to the interpretation of the soloist. So now I'm free to introduce any of the following into my melodic scheme.
Bb = for Dom7th sound (jazzy/bluesy)
B = for Maj7th sound (jazzy/mellow)
Db = for Dom7b9 sound (jazzy/bluesy)
D = 9th (jazzy/bluesy)
D#(Eb) = raise 9th or (Dom7 alt bluesy sound)
F = Dom7(11)
F# = Dom7/Maj7 raise 11th
The idea is to take advantage of all of the possible harmonic colors that can be layered on top of our C maj tonality (which really is Amin). That includes all of the possible alterations( b5, +5, dom7, maj7, b9th and so on ).
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