 As we discovered in Pt. 4, that because Melodic Minor has no "avoid notes", anything we play within the MM "key" will not sound wrong, and that any MM chord can be substituted for any other. It also means that MM is "key" oriented, rather than chord or cadence oriented. This apparent "lack" of an avoid note actually turns out to give our MM mutant it's wings to fly free, unencumbered by the rules and confinements of Major Scale harmony, and it's tensions and resolutions.
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 As we continue the saga of MM (aka Melodic Minor), our "Major Modal Mutant", and cast a brief glance over our shoulders for a quick recap, we remind ourselves that:
While focusing on what MM has, we've neglected to call attention to what it lacks. We haven't yet touched upon the sad and cruel fact that our mutant came into this world without something that actually defines Major Scale harmony. We can't avoid this discussion any longer.
The truth......... is....that........MM was .......born with.......without........OMG.........this is tough, folks!.......that MM was born without an............!  Click for Larger Image I'm beginning to think that I've been giving Melodic Minor (MM, to close friends), a bad rap, calling it "Major's Evil Twin". It's not really "evil" at all. In fact, it's pretty sweet when you get to know it well. So, in line with my statement in Part 2 about getting "intimately familiar" with MM's modes and chord types, I thought it might be helpful to some of you to post this basic Melodic Minor Chord / Scale exercise in all 12 keys. As the name suggests, you start on the root, play an arpeggiated seventh chord up, then a scale down to the root of the next diatonic chord, and continue that pattern throughout the range of your instrument. Then reverse the process: chord down, scale up. There's nothing really slick about this exercise, but it's a very effective way to get the fundamentals of MM (or any scale) under your control. Download 6 page pdf
 Click for Larger Image In Pt. 1, we saw how M.M. was created from of the ribs of a Major scale by simply dropping the Maj. 3rd a half step, and in the process, changing the interval relationships (and therefore the tensions) within the scale itself. The sound of MM is now darker and more mysterious than Major, due mainly to the added whole tone (creating an augmented triad, Eb-G-B), and the diatonic presence of two diminished triads (A-C-Eb & B-D-F), meaning that our new scale now possesses two tritones (A-Eb & B-F).
Besides the tritones, we also notice that our new scale now contains 4 perfect fourths (C-F, D-G, G-C, A-C), and one diminished fourth (B-Eb) which sounds and functions as a Major 3rd and is one of the defining intervals of the MM scale (more on that later).  The scale and harmonic system known as Melodic Minor (aka: Jazz Minor, Ascending Melodic Minor, Ionian b3, etc.) is probably the most misunderstood and under digested of the traditional diatonic derived scale systems being used in improvised music. Many students, and professionals alike, tend to freeze up like they saw Frankenstein when presented with chord symbols or mode choices native to Melodic Minor, or for that matter, not native to Major.
Most of us have been taught to view any altered chord type as an altered form of it's Major counterpart. For example, let's look at Eb Maj7+5 (Eb - G - B - D). We take an Eb Major 7 chord (Eb - G - Bb - D) and raise the 5th a half step (Bb to B), right?. But now it no longer belongs to either the Major key of Eb or Bb, or for that matter, any Major mother scale. So where then does it belong? Who is this baby's mother and where is she? The idea of taking a chord from the Major scale and altering an element of that chord is, in itself, not totally misguided, but....! |
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