Sonny uses the b9 and #9 to create a sequenced melody. In bar 4 we can use the A altered scale, while in bar 12 we can use the E altered scale. The use of the altered scale is by no means limited to where a chart explicitly calls for it. Mentally practice the altered scale – Think slowly through every dominant chord using the altered scale by substituting the 9th for the b9 and #9, and raising the 11th as you did with diminished. Feel free to disagree. Click the lovely button below to get started, Copyright ©2020 Jazzadvice, All rights reserved, 5 Secrets for Mastering the Altered Scale, Navigating Altered Dominants: Strategies for the V7#9 Chord, 10 Easy Options for Expanding Your Dominant 7th Vocabulary, Developing Musicality: Applying Scales vs. Read each one, find how it’s illustrated in the diagram, and let the information soak in: Once you’ve got a handle on these key relationships and takeaways, move on to understanding how the diminished scale relates to dominant 7 chords…, When people try to use the diminished scale they think SO much, “Which scale is it? The paradigm shift is the mixing and matching of all this information. The one thing to watch for, however, is a dominant chord that has an altered 9th and a natural 13th, notated commonly as G7b9. Then: Have fun exploring all the variations of altered dominant chords. AND substituting the 56, for b5/#11, #5/b13; Have fun exploring all the variations of altered dominant chords. Over this chord progression we can use the altered scale in bar 4 and bar 12. Wait, the half whole one or the whole half?”. Notice how all three of these voicings sound quite different, but are still dominant chords? No matter what advice I took, I couldn’t seem to play over them in a way that didn’t sound artificial, like I was doing math in my head or trying to spell a long word. To use the altered scale effectively, you really have to know what’s going on. You can also leave notes of the scale out as in this example. You’ll just know that Ab is the b9 of G7, and so on and so forth. Altered V and V7. Try others. The effective use of this scale, however, is not easy. Use these as a starting point, but explore other ways of how you can strongly resolve these tensions. Knowing that the altered scale and the tritone sub are essentially two ways of looking at the same thing, you could choose to play the tritone sub (Db7#11), or in this case the tritone sub pentatonic (Db/C# pentatonic) as Michael Brecker does in measure four of his solo on “Suspone.”. What are the relationships? The altered scale is used to solo over dominant 7th chords, both in major and minor keys. In this last chord voicing, we’ll flat the 13th from the previous voicing. When you first start to use the altered scale in your solos, you may have still have to think of the related melodic minor. Would it help you. A lot of the color in jazz comes from the sounds of the various altered dominant chords. Applying Language, Play a blues and play 12345321 of Ab melodic minor on every G7 chord, Begin to feel and hear G altered as it’s own entity, Start to know instantaneously that Ab is the b9, Bb (A#) is the #9, D# is the #5, and C# is the #11. Of course, the diminished scale is really cool because it’s an 8 note symmetrical scale that you can form interesting patterns from, but, conceptually over dominant, it’s just a dominant 7 chord with a b9, #9, and #11. Seeing these key points visually should give you the “click” moment you’ve been waiting for where you say, “Oh, I FINALLY get how all this dominant seventh chord alteration stuff works…it’s actually pretty EASY.”. And what I realized is that no one had ever laid out exactly what was actually possible with dominant seventh chord alterations, so I was in this mental place where I really didn’t know what was going on or even have an idea of what was harmonically possible. Know the theory but also know that there are plenty of other ways to think about and play over this sound. Spend some time with the subway-map of dominant 7 alterations and make sure you’re seeing all the information that’s there. The use of the altered scale is by no means limited to where a chart explicitly calls for it. No. But what would a visual of all these relationships even look like? Here’s a ten note altered bebop scale. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Really, any dominant chord resolving down a fifth (G7 to C major) can take the altered scale. This example is 12345321 of Ab melodic minor. Here I chose #5 and #9 and would go through an entire tune playing this pair wherever I could. A scale choice does its best job to guide you to the strong notes of the voicing, however, by conceptually knowing and having the ability to hear the chord voicing, you can craft lines that are structured around the chord-tones in the voicing without relying so heavily on jazz scale or theoretical knowledge. Be able to think of Db7#11 (tritone sub) as another point of view of the same altered sounds, Choose which altered tensions you want on downbeats by inserting half steps in various places, Be able to take lines you transcribe and impose the altered sound on top of them by writing out a new line, Be able to take lines you transcribe and impose the altered sound on top of them by improvising around the shape and structure of the line, Freely, confidently, and musically begin to apply the altered sounds to dominant chords in tunes you are working on. So, whenever you see a dominant V7 chord to I written within a chord progression you can play an altered scale over the dominant chord. It’s a SOUND. As much as we all love the DMV, you don’t need a license to be creative . Confirm the new key with a cadence. If you feel this way about altered dominant chords, you’re not alone. There will be one tutorial for each of the seven chords of the diatonic major key. Now, spend some time studying the diagram in order to develop a visual and mental impression of all the relationships in the diagram. Of course. Altered chords are, as their name suggests, standard diatonic chords in which one or more of the notes have been altered, either by being sharpened or flattened. In this article we will be looking at altered dominant chords. In all of our chord voicings we will include the root, the 3rd, and the 7th along with either a natural or altered version of the 9th and 13th. But it is not just jazz that has altered dominants. In the following example, I’ve imposed the altered scale over the line. 9. But dominant seventh chords with an assortment of alterations…they’re a whole different animal! A view from above gives you the best insight into this scale: Just looking at this visual, it’s very clear what’s happening. Take a look at the relationships and it all becomes clear: Has it dawned on you yet that using a diminished scale over a dominant 7 chord is the same as using a b9 & #9, and a #11? That’s right, a sound is going on behind you while you improvise. For instance, take this example from Michael Brecker: By inserting chromatic passing tones between altered notes, Brecker controls which tensions land on downbeats (the notes on the downbeats are going to suggest the underlying structure of the line.) And after that, their altered scale and chord knowledge stops. For example, if you play the G7#5 from the G altered dominant chord diagrams, all you need to do is move the whole shape up two frets and it turns into A7#5. The Altered Chord Series. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Using the melodic minor scale to derive the altered scale is fine for starting out, but to utilize the altered scale to its full potential, it’s important to have the scale under your fingers and in your mind without having to think of its related melodic minor. Jerry Coker told our class that he and Jamey disagreed on one primary issue about the altered scale. In fact, you can easily play a b13 over this sound and sound great if you know how to use it in terms of jazz language and you can hear how to resolve it. Make up your own scalar segments in a similar fashion. In this second chord voicing, all we’re doing is flatting the 9th from the previous voicing. They truly are one of the most beautiful sounds in this music and learning to understand, hear, and play over them will add a whole new dimension to your playing! It sounds complex, but when you break it down, it’s really not. Sure, the jazz standard you’re playing may specify certain chords, but it’s largely up to the comping instrument to interpret the chords in the moment and respond accordingly depending upon where they hear the music heading. This is a combination of understanding the scale inside and out (resolutions, each tension’s relationship to the chord, and the rest of the points discussed previously) and combing that understanding with language. In this first chord voicing, it’s all unaltered notes. Copyright ©2020 Jazzadvice, All rights reserved, https://www.jazzadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/V7Nat9Nat13.mp3, https://www.jazzadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/V7b9Nat13.mp3, https://www.jazzadvice.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/V7b9b13.mp3, How to Not Suck at Half-Diminished Chords, 10 Easy Options for Expanding Your Dominant 7th Vocabulary, The only chord-tones that remain “unaltered” are the root, 3rd, and 7th, The 9th gets replaced with the b9 & #9 and the 11th gets raised as well, the same way these chord-tones were altered using the diminished scale. This is the altered scale with a passing tone in between the b13 and #11. Now, this doesn’t mean you can’t alter notes in your improvised lines. Gradually, you will have these notes at your finger tips without having to think of the related melodic minor. One instance relevant to the discussion of altered scales comes to mind. 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