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Melodic Minor, Week Four

This lesson is part of the course Weekly Guitar Workout with Scott Nygaard.
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This series of exercises will help guitarists learn the fingerboard and expand their knowledge of chord and scale theory, with handy tips on picking and fretting techniques that will improve their sound. Includes 100 workouts.
 
 
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FOUR-NOTE ARPEGGIOS 
 
This series of workouts consists of four-note arpeggios based on the harmonized major scale. You'll move through a series of arpeggios starting on each note of the major scale, in this case all in the key of G. So, for example, the first arpeggio starts on G, moves up a third to B, up another third to D, and up another third to F#, creating a Gmaj7 arpeggio in the process. The second arpeggio starts on A, moves up a third to C, up another third to E, and up another third to G, for an Am7 arpeggio. Notice that all the notes are in the key of G, so you'll get the four-note arpeggios that correspond to the harmonized major scale: Gmaj7, Am7, Bm7, Cmaj7, D7, Em7, and F#m7b5. Once you get to the top string, you'll move downward in thirds once again, but this time the arpeggios start on the seventh of the chord formed by the arpeggio. So, for example, the arpeggio starting on G moves down a third to E, down another third to C, and down another third to A, giving you an Am7 arpeggio that begins on the seventh (G) and moves downward to the root (A).
 
 
 
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MELODIC MINOR   
 
MELODIC MINOR   
 
Melodic Minor, Week Four
Melodic Minor, Week Four
 
The melodic minor scale is more often used in jazz than in roots music. In one of the more common uses in contemporary jazz (but that is rarely used elsewhere) the melodic minor scale is played over altered dominant chords. To do this, you start the melodic minor scale on the flatted nine of the dominant chord (a half step above the root). The reason this works is that altered dominant chords often contain the flat nine, sharp nine, flat five, and sharp five of the scale, in addition to the root, third, and flatted seventh. A melodic minor scale starting on the flat nine of a dominant chord produces the flat nine, sharp nine, third, flat five, sharp five, flatted seventh and root of the dominant chord. Yup, it’s pretty heady stuff, but Examples 1 and 2 show you a couple of examples. Example 1 is an Eb melodic minor line, which you would play over a D7 altered chord resolving to G. And Example 2 is an Ab melodic minor line, which you would play over a G7 altered chord resolving to C. The melodic minor scale can also be used when the IV chord in a key is a dominant chord: a common occurrence in blues-oriented jazz tunes. If you start the melodic minor on the fourth step of the scale you get what is sometimes called a Lydian dominant scale, which means you have a flatted seventh and a raised fourth (or sharp 11). You can play this over 7#11 chords or just over a dominant IV chord. Examples 3 and 4 are two examples of this.

  Melodic Minor: Week Four (Available to subscribers)
 
 
 
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