Tip: Soloing With Melodic Minor Scale II

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We’re exploring the melodic minor scale for soloing over dominant 7 chords. Please see the previous entries listed below for details.

The last time we looked at playing the D melodic minor scale over a G7 chord. We saw how that D scale contains all the notes in a G7.

Now we’ll see that D melodic minor is not the only scale to contain a G7. Look at the C melodic minor scale:

C D Eb F G A B C

Just one note different from the C major scale. Once again, G7 is present: notes G, B, D, F. We’re going to use this C scale to solo over G7. Here’s a pattern:

|-------------5-7-8-|-7-5--------------|
|---------6-8-------|-----8-6----------|
|---5-7-8-----------|---------8-7-5----|
|-------------------|----------------9-|
|-------------------|------------------|
|-------------------|------------------|

Record yourself strumming the G7 chord onto a tape recorder and then play back the recording. Play around with the C melodic minor pattern just given.

Let’s cap this exploration of using the melodic minor scale for soloing over dominant 7 chords by adding one more point:

It’s possible to use two other melodic minor scales over the G7 chords, besides the D and C scales mentioned. Without getting into details here, you can try the F melodic minor scale and also the Ab melodic minor scale. Neither fully contains the G7 notes, but both may still sound good to you.

Thanks for reading. Next time: soloing over minor chords.

Copyright © 2007 Darrin Koltow

This first appeared in the Guitar Noise News – November 1, 2005 newsletter. Reprinted with permission.

Scales and Soloing Series