Fretboard fluency

Martin Goulding brings you the third part in his series on the Melodic Minor scale, the foundation for many lines heard in jazz.

The Melodic Minor scale comprises the b3- formula: R-2- 4-5-6-7, and can be visualised either as a Major scale with the 3rd degree lowered, or as a Natural Minor scale with the 6th and 7th degrees raised. Last month, we harmonised the scale into a family of seven diatonic chords, alongside their corresponding modes: I m/maj7 – Melodic Minor b2 ii m7 – Dorian

III maj7#5 – Lydian Augmented

IV dom7 – Lydian Dominant b6

V dom7 – Mixolydian

m7b5 vi – Locrian natural 2

m7b5 vii (or more commonly treated as a V7alt) – Superlocrian

This month, we’ll work through the diatonic arpeggios that correspond to our seven harmonised chords and modes, arranging them in one area of the fretboard using the CAGED system. As we work through the arpeggios, we may recognise some of the more familiar types such as

7b5 minor 7, dominant 7 and minor from our Major scale system, which leaves only minor/major 7 and major 7#5 arpeggios left to learn. We’ll use alternate picking to ascend and descend each shape before moving on to an ‘up one, down two’ style sequence which uses sweeping combined with hammer-ons and pull-offs, and which incorporates all seven arpeggios of the harmonised scale. These types of sequence form the building blocks of improvisation and, when combined with other melodic and rhythmic concepts, can help generate a whole vocabulary of new melodic ideas.

Diagram 1 provides an overview of the seven diatonic arpeggios of the A Melodic Minor scale, arranged in shape 1 with the associated chord indicated in black. We can also view this shape as hosting two other common tonalities within A Melodic Minor – the G# Superlocrian mode (otherwise known as the Altered scale), which we can visualise

m7b5 around the G# chord in position 1 (or more commonly as a G#7 Altered chord), and the D Lydian Dominant mode, which we can view around the D7 chord in position 4. When improvising, we can superimpose these arpeggios over any tonal centre within the key of A Melodic Minor for a range of different sounds. This month, we’ll begin by learning each diatonic arpeggio along with its associated ‘home’ chord.

Frank Gambale: among the most melodically aware and technically gifted of guitarists

Set up a warm overdriven tone to play the examples as it’s one of the best ways to monitor the effectiveness of your muting (unplayed string noise will often result in dissonant overtones, especially as you ascend to the higher treble strings). The overdriven sound is also the tone of choice for many modern styles and will lend a more fusion orientated sound to the jazz-based concepts that we’re studying this month.