Altered Dominant Substitutions-Lesson 3

Description

I have been asked many times to do some more video lessons on the altered scale and sound.   The altered scale is one of the hippest and more modern sounds out there.  It is derived from the melodic minor scale and most modern players use it quite often on dominant chords.  By using the altered scale you create lines that use all the altered tensions of a dominant chord.  The b9,#9,3,#11,b13 and b7.  This gives the line or idea an “outside” sound.  A sound with a lot of tension and dissonance.  This type of  tension sounds terrific when it is used by an improviser that can control it.  The trick is to resolve it correctly.

In Altered Dominant Substitutions-Lesson 3, I focus playing the altered scale on the V7 of a ii-V-I progression by focusing on another small segment (different than lesson 1) of the scale and creating lines with these notes.  By focusing on a smaller selection of altered notes, you will find that you will come up with totally different and unique lines than you normally would using the altered scale as a whole.  The other side benefit of this technique, is that this concept is fairly easy to put into practice immediately and you will find yourself creating more melodic lines based on these segments.  This is a terrific lesson series to get into if you want to get away from your average stale ii-V-I ideas and play with a more modern hipper sound. (28 Minute Video Lesson & PDF)