This exercise guides you through a series of chords in A Natural Minor = A B C D E F G but which incorporates the maj 6 and 7 intervals provided courtesy of the A Melodic Minor = A B C D E F# G#.
These two notes normally sound ‘outside’ until you find a neat use for them, and then they will play along nicely with the others.
Historically they were made famous by Bach who often created lines which ascended using the 6th and 7th but descended using the original b6th and b7th. As a result this is how the MM scale is taught:
You can use them whenever and wherever they fit in your music.
In this lesson I am only focussing on their harmonic value in a chordal setting.
Here are the chords:
Am 9 | G#7 #5 #9 | G13 | F#m 7b5 | F maj 13 | E 7 | Dm 7 | B dim7
Here are the frets:
One of the devices used to slip them in inconspicuously is a Chromatic (colourful) Bass line, meaning a specific use of the new notes to fill in the spaces of the Natural scale so that portions of the line proceed semitone by semitone e.g. the bass notes in the example goes A G# G F# F E D B - the first five moves are semitonic.
Another is to use the notes within chords e.g. the posh sounding G#7 #5 #9 is actually G# F# C E B and uses both new notes in a chord that fits in this context, but if you came across it in a book by itself, then its value might not be immediately obvious. The same principle applies to the F#m 7 b5 = F# A C E which only uses one of them, and the E7 = E G# B D which also uses one. In the E7’s case the G# is actually substituting the G natural so the chord changes from Em 7 to E7.
While designing this I was also keen to retain the same upper voice for each pair of chords. This is just a tool you can try in case it benefits your chord progressions.
Notice also that some of the chords could be a bigger shape but that I only needed certain voices, and not using full bars in places made the fingering transitions easier.
Take a look at your chord progressions and try on a few of these ideas.
Once you have a progression in place, you may choose to improvise over it. Knowing which chords have MM notes helps you adapt your scale accordingly from chord to chord.
