I'm trying not to beat this Melodic Minor thing to death, but here's one more exercise (#2) over a iii-VI-ii-V cadence, highlighting the use of alternating Major and Melodic Minor scales.
Major and Melodic Minor in a diatonic context work together like yin & yang, dark vs. light, Adam & Eve, Abbott & Costello...................
KnowwhatI'msayin'!?
This 4 bar line typifies everything bebop, and it's elements have been a staple of the vocabulary for about 75 years, so there's nothing new here, unless of course, you happen to be new to it!
In that case I would recommend checking out some of the earlier blog posts, starting here, on Melodic Minor harmony.
What still amazes me to no small degree, is and has been the historical misunderstanding and confusion on the subject, in both the available literature as well as our hallowed institutions of "higher learning".
Major and Melodic Minor in a diatonic context work together like yin & yang, dark vs. light, Adam & Eve, Abbott & Costello...................
KnowwhatI'msayin'!?
This 4 bar line typifies everything bebop, and it's elements have been a staple of the vocabulary for about 75 years, so there's nothing new here, unless of course, you happen to be new to it!
In that case I would recommend checking out some of the earlier blog posts, starting here, on Melodic Minor harmony.
What still amazes me to no small degree, is and has been the historical misunderstanding and confusion on the subject, in both the available literature as well as our hallowed institutions of "higher learning".
As someone who is largely self taught, my teachers have been mainly recordings, books and other musicians. Not to single anyone out (you know who you / they are), but when the first "jazz books" became available in the late 1960's & early '70s, very little to no mention at all of Melodic Minor usage was in evidence anywhere.
In fact, to my knowledge, the first one to hit it right on the screws was Mark Levine in "The Jazz Piano Book", and in even more detail in the "Jazz Theory Book", published by Sher Music in 1989 and 1995 respectively. Both books contain short sub-chapters with examples explaining that, since Melodic Minor has no inherent "avoid notes" in the sense that exists in Major, then any Melodic Minor chord / scale is fully interchangeable with any other Melodic Minor chord / scale.
Wow! Talk about a paradigm shift, a revelation, an epiphany! Thank you, Mark!!
Up to that point, I had been playing things based on the "altered scale" without knowing or understanding that much about it, since, as mentioned earlier, this stuff had been part of the vocabulary since forever.
However, once I understood that the "altered scale" (the seventh mode of Melodic Minor), and any other of the Melodic Minor modes is mutually interchangeable in any situation, I then understood a lot more of what I heard guys like 'Trane, Joe Henderson and Michael Brecker, etc. were doing.
A lengthy period of experimentation and self discovery then ensued.
And, while I am not normally known as someone who habitually toots his own horn........................,
In fact, to my knowledge, the first one to hit it right on the screws was Mark Levine in "The Jazz Piano Book", and in even more detail in the "Jazz Theory Book", published by Sher Music in 1989 and 1995 respectively. Both books contain short sub-chapters with examples explaining that, since Melodic Minor has no inherent "avoid notes" in the sense that exists in Major, then any Melodic Minor chord / scale is fully interchangeable with any other Melodic Minor chord / scale.
Wow! Talk about a paradigm shift, a revelation, an epiphany! Thank you, Mark!!
Up to that point, I had been playing things based on the "altered scale" without knowing or understanding that much about it, since, as mentioned earlier, this stuff had been part of the vocabulary since forever.
However, once I understood that the "altered scale" (the seventh mode of Melodic Minor), and any other of the Melodic Minor modes is mutually interchangeable in any situation, I then understood a lot more of what I heard guys like 'Trane, Joe Henderson and Michael Brecker, etc. were doing.
A lengthy period of experimentation and self discovery then ensued.
And, while I am not normally known as someone who habitually toots his own horn........................,
Toooooooot!!!
One of the very few currently available publications dealing exclusively with the subject of Melodic Minor harmony, "The Melodic Minor Handbook: A Jazz Player's Perspective", was conceived after a conversation with long time friend and New York guitar guru and publisher, Bruce Arnold, in 2005, and originally published by his company, Muse-Eek.
Original Muse-Eek Edition
| 
Current Aebersold Edition
|
Jamey Aebersold, who was the book's main initial distributor, became it's present publisher in 2006.
Since then, although the book hasn't made even the slightest dent in bringing me any closer to financial independence, I'm comforted by the thought that it has helped save many a wayward soul, in every corner of the globe, from the dreaded scourge, the ravages of Melodic Minor ignorance!!!
Halle#$%^&lujah!!!
Since then, although the book hasn't made even the slightest dent in bringing me any closer to financial independence, I'm comforted by the thought that it has helped save many a wayward soul, in every corner of the globe, from the dreaded scourge, the ravages of Melodic Minor ignorance!!!
Halle#$%^&lujah!!!
B. Stern
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