In a pro-career spanning 40 years and 5 countries, Cincinnati-born jazz guitarist Greg Chako has released ten albums and played countless shows around the world. His bi-weekly column, "Notes From The Desk Of A Jazz Guitarist” shares his expert tips on becoming a better player and person.
The Path of Least Resistance #7
Although I know about scales and will be writing in the future about the one(s) most critical to know of, what is foremost in my development and approach to soloing over chord “changes” is the concept of “Chord Scales,” or how I like to think of it, as taking the path of least resistance through the changes you’re soloing over.
What I call a “Chord Scale” is a scale built on the root of every chord symbol you see in a lead sheet, a scale for every chord as it were . . . And chord scale analysis is the method of determining what the scale is. Once you develop a habit of doing chord scale analysis, you’ll begin to notice patterns and commonalities in chord progressions which enable you to immediately identify by mere sight what the main scale or scales are that should be used. I’ll mention one such observation of mine at the end of this article.
The prerequisite for chord scale analysis is to know how to spell: how to identify the Root, 3rd, 5th, and 7th scale degree of any chord, and to know what the 9th (the 2nd up an octave), 11th (the 4th up an octave), and 13th (the 6th up an octave) scale degrees are; for instance, a Cmaj7 is spelled C (R) E (3rd) G (5th) B (Major7) & a C-7 is spelled C (R) Eb (min3rd) G (5th) Bb (min7). I teach this in my private lessons and won’t go further into it now except to say that we all should know how to spell before we can make musical sentences, paragraphs and more, just like we learned how to begin to use the English language prolifically, starting with spelling.
The criteria for determining a chord scale is to first spell the four note chord indicated by the chord symbol, and then to fill in the three (or more in the case of 7b9 or 7b5 chords) missing notes not necessarily indicated by the chord symbol, the notes in between the R & 3rd; 3rd & 5th; and 5th & 7th. How do we determine what those should be?
The rules are simple and reliable:
#1 The Melody - if the melody note is one of the notes in question, then you have your answer, because melody reigns supreme. Example, in the key signature of F, you see a G7 chord and you’re looking for what note goes between the B (3rd) and D (5th), and there’s a C# in the melody, then you include the C#, the #11 of the chord, because it’s a melody note.
#2 Context - Context is everything (in life AND music!), second in importance only to the melody. What I mean by context in the context of this article is: what came before the chord in question and what comes after the chord in question?
If you see a G7 chord symbol and the key signature has 3 flats (Eb or Cminor), and you’re trying to find the scale degree coming after the root and before the third (the 9th) and there’s no A or Ab in the melody right there, then you look for what surrounds this chord: Are there any A’s or Ab’s in the preceding or forthcoming measures? If you notice a Ab or two in nearby measures, then you pick the path of least resistance, the Ab, because an A there would be out of context.
#3 Key Signature - the least important of the three criteria, but it is relevant and offers a clue and reaffirmation of your decision. For instance, in the preceding example, there was an Ab in the key signature, so that fact bolsters your decision to use an Ab and not an A in that circumstance.
Now as promised, here’s a general observation that I’ve made as a result of doing chord scale analysis over the years:
If you see from the key signature, the melody, and the starting and ending chord, that you are in the key of C, then I suggest the following:
Any bii7 (Db7); biii7 (Eb7); IV7 (F7); bvi7 (Ab7); or bvii7 (Bb7) will take the Lydian-Flat 7 scale (R ; 2(9) ; 3 ; #11 ; 5 ; 6(13) ; b7)
Here is an F7 LydianFlat 7 scale: F G A B C D Eb - all natural tensions except for the #11
It’s called that because the word Lydian suggests the #11 and the word Flat 7 suggests the 7th is flatted as it is on all Dominant 7th chords.
More to come on scales . . . Please contact me with any questions or comments . . .