Playing Over Changes Pt 2

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Hi there and welcome to part 2 of 'Playing over Changes'. This time we'll be dealing with melodic minor chords and their associated scale choices and also with motivic development over changes. For the purpose of this tutorial a small piece of information:- All named scales start from the root of the chord in question. Our first chord type is called a Mino...

Media Length: 2:46

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Our next chord is very common in fusion and jazz music and has a very attractive but dark sound. It's called a Major7 #5 chord and is the III chord from the melodic minor scale. The scale required to play over this chord is a Lydian Augmented scale which, as the name suggests, is a lydian scale with a sharpened 5th. This is the 3rd mode of the melodic minor...

Media Length: 1:44

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Our next chord type is dominant 7th chord with a sharpened 11th interval. This gives us a lydian dominant chord also known as the chord symbol 7#11. From the root note G this would give us G7#11 for example. The scale associated with this chord is the lydian dominant scale which is a mixolydian scale with a sharpened 11th. Over the G7#11 we'd play the G lyd...

Media Length: 2:52

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Our penultimate chord type is based on a min7b5 chord, also known as a locrian chord. The difference here is that the melodic minor version of this chord contains a natural 9 and is the 6th chord of melodic minor. Since the chord would normally take a locrian scale, we simply play a locrian mode and sharpen the 9th (2nd) interval. This gives us the characte...

Media Length: 1:54

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Okay, our final chord type is named an altered dominant chords. If you've seen my other melodic minor tutorial you'll know that an altered dominant is a dominant chord that contains any of the following intervals in any combination, b5, #5, b9, #9.  From G examples could be G7#5b9, G7#9, G7#5#9 etc. The scale we use over altered dominants is the super...

Media Length: 2:07

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: One of the hardest things to do when playing over changes is phrase well through the chords. In order to do this successfully we need a few things in our playing bag of tricks. The first is an excellent fretboard knowledge. Without this you stand no chance of hearing and finding your way through the changes and you'll get lost all the time preventing you fro...

Media Length: 2:51

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Okay, here's the video example with the accompanying transcription below. I'm playing over four chords. The sequence goes as follows. A7sus4, Bb7#11, Dmaj7, C7#11 so two of these are melodic minor chords requiring lydian dominant scales. Analyse the motif and see how I 'mold' it to fit the changes.

Media Length: 2:47

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Now, when using motifs to play through chord changes you must remember that this is only an exercise and were you to play a complete solo this way, with very little rhythmic variation, you'd ultimately end up sounding like an exercise. Therefore, use this method to develop the ability to play motivically through changes so that you can do so when required. I...

Media Length: 1:37

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's the example of anticipating the changes. The changes here are:- Amaj7, Bb7alt, Dmaj7, C7sus4 Try playing over each chord a beat earlier than it actually comes in or even two beats. Very seasoned players can come in on a chord change up to a bar or more before it happens. When you do so really try to outline the chord by playing arpeggios based on i...

Media Length: 1:44

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's the first backing track using melodic minor chords. The changes are:- ||: Am6 / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / | F#m6 / / / | / / / / | / / / / | / / / / :|| Use A melodic minor for Am6 Use F# melodic minor for F#m6 Try continuous scale exercises, motif playing and free improvisation. Good luck!

Media Length: 3:20

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's backing track number 2. A mixture of major and melodic minor harmony. The changes are:- ||: A7sus4 / / / | / / / / | Bb7#11 / / / | / / / / | Dmaj7 / / / | / / / / | C7#11 / / / | / / / / :|| Use A mixolydian for the A7sus4 Use Bb lydian dominant for the Bb7#11 Use D major/lydian for the Dmaj7 Use C lydian dominant C7#11 Try continuous scale e...

Media Length: 2:58

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's backing track number 3. The changes are as follows:- ||: Am7 / / / | / / / / | Bbmaj7#5 / / / | / / / / | D7sus4 / / / | / / / / | C7#11 / / / | / / / / :|| Use A Dorian over the Am7 chord Use Bb Lydian Augmented over the Bbmaj7#5 chord Use D mixolydian over D7sus4 chord Use C Lydian Dominant over the C7#11 chord Try continuous scale exercises,...

Media Length: 2:34

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here backing track number 4, The changes are as follows:- ||: Amaj7 / / / | / / / / | Bb7alt / / / | / / / / | Dmaj7 / / / | / / / / | C7sus4 / / / | / / / / :|| Use A major/lydian over the Amaj7 chord Use Bb superlocrian/altered over the Bb7alt chord Use D major/lydian over the Dmaj7 chord Use C mixolydian over the C7sus4 chord Try continuous scale e...

Media Length: 2:18

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Instructor: Tom Quayle Level: Advanced Topic: Improvising Style: Fusion

Excerpt: Here's the final backing track. The changes are as follows:- ||: AmMaj9 / / / | / / / / | Bbm7b5nat9 / / / | / / / / | Dmaj7#5 / / / | / / / / | Cmaj9 / / / | / / / / :|| Use A melodic minor over the AmMaj9 chord Use Bb Locrian natural 9 over the Bbm7b5nat9 chord Use D lydian augmented over the Dmaj7#5 chord Use C major/lydian over the Cmaj9 chord Try...

Media Length: 3:17