Fretboard fluency
Martin Goulding continues his look at the Melodic Minor scale, its first and fourth modes often used alongside those of the Major scale.
Martin Goulding looks into Melodic Minor and shows more interesting ways to use it.
Welcome to this month’s column on developing fretboard fluency, with the second part in our series looking at the Melodic Minor scale. As we saw in last month’s lesson, this scale consists b3- of the formula: R-2- 4-5-6-7. But you can b3rd also visualise it as a Major scale with a or, from a minor perspective, a Natural Minor scale with a raised 6th and 7th.
This month, we’ll continue our study of this scale by taking the root, 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees from each consecutive note and arranging it as a family of diatonic 7th chords along with their respective modes. This will give us a harmonised scale with the seven chords following the order:
I (m/maj7), ii (m7), III (maj7#5), IV
m7b5) m7b5). (dom7), V (dom7), vi ( and vii (
The vii chord is more commonly applied in jazz as an altered dominant chord (a dominant chord with flats or sharps applied to the 5th and/or 9th degrees), and which usually functions as the V chord in a ii-V-I progression, heightening tension and pulling us towards the resolving tonic I chord. We can interpret the vii chord in this way as the intervallic formula for the Superlocrian mode, as it supports a range of different options for altering dominant chords as well
m7b5 as the standard which would result from constructing a chord based around stacking consecutive 3rds. Within the family of chords derived from Melodic Minor, we can identify the more familiar minor 7, dominant 7 and
7b5 minor chords found within the diatonic Major scale system.
Along with the m/maj7 covered last month, that leaves only the major 7#5 and altered dominant chords left to learn.
After arranging these chords and modes to ascend the fretboard horizontally as shape 1 forms, with the root notes moving along the sixth string, we’ll also see how we can view all seven chords and modes within one area of the fretboard, based around the parent Melodic Minor scale in shape 1. As usual, we’ll be using strict alternate picking to execute each mode, with the associated chord serving as a landmark by which we can memorise each shape as well as providing a reference for our ear
NEXT MONTH Martin investigates more cool ways in which to navigate the fretboard