Judging from the title, this post is a follow up to last week’s, with some ideas on how one could apply these particular Melodic Minor 4th shapes in a ii-V7-i situation; at least in theory. What I’ve done here was to copy one of the single measure shape patterns from a particular MM scale for the ii7b5, and another one from the MM scale a minor 3rd above it for the V7alt, but not from the same identical scale degree, so that while the shape remains the same, the pattern’s interval makeup is slightly different. A common Melodic Minor device … Read More
Category Archives: Fourths
On the heels of my last posted exercise, which was inspired by Walter Bishop’s “A Study in 4ths”, and which ended with an ascending figure of a diminished scale in Perfect 4ths, I thought it could be cool to further investigate some of the possibilities of P4th relationships within a diminished scale. I had considerably diminished the use of the diminished scale in my own playing for quite a while now, since I’ve felt that the modes of Melodic Minor (which is 2 notes shy of being a diminished scale), primarily the “altered scale” (seventh mode, diminished / whole tone) … Read More
Here’s a groovy little line, based on 3 note groupings of diatonic 4th intervals of the Melodic Minor scale, which morphed into being today as I waxed saxosophical. In my recent series of posts entitled “Melodic Minor: Major’s Evil Twin”, Pts. 1 -5, it was mentioned that: 1) The Melodic Minor scale system does not contain an unbroken row of 6 perfect fourths, as does Major (i.e. C Maj: B-E-A-D-G-C-F). As a result of altering the Maj. 3rd “E” to “Eb”, the newly created C Melodic Minor scale now has 4 perfect fourths, 2 tritones (Eb-A, F-B) and a diminshed … Read More
Here’s a nice little fourth / pentatonic type intervalic ii-V7 pattern, a la Woody Shaw, that slipped into my fingers the other day as I was doing my saxophonic due diligence. A quick analysis of the first line reveals that on beats 3 & 4 and 1 & 2 of measures one & two respectively, there’s a brief tonality shift into B Major, or one half step below the target key, C. Beats 3 & 4 of measure two are an altered four note grouping, relative to the dominant (G7), leading back to the targeted tonic chord C minor (or … Read More