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Help with indentifying scale for Jazz song

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(@mpenner)
New Member
Joined: 19 years ago
Posts: 1
Topic starter  

I have a jazz song that I need to come up with a solo for. I have the sheet music for it whose key signature shows four flats, which would be Ab or Fm. The cord progression is Fm, Bb2, Db7, Dbsus2. It has been suggested that the song is in a Fm blues scale, which makes sense since that is closely related to the Fm scale, but during one of the measures where Fm chord is being played there is a D natural note in the melody. There is also a B note during a Db7 chord, but this seems to make sense since this part of the Fm blues scale.

I guess what really throws me is the use of the Db chords in a song that is supposedly in Fm blues.

I have found that the Fm pentatonic scale works well during the Fm, Bb2 chords, but not during the Db chords, since Db is not part of that scale. The best that I have been able to come up with is to use the Abm pentatonic over the Db chords. This occurred to me becuase the scale form looks a lot like the Db chord forms.

Any help or suggestions that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

BTW, I have been lurking in these forums for awhile now and have learned a lot. You folks are great.

Mike


   
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(@fretsource)
Prominent Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 973
 

Welcome Mike
A song can be in a key or mode but not in a scale, such as "Fm blues scale". Whether or not its notes are primarily from the blues scale or minor pentatonic, etc. isn't considered when naming the songs tonality/modality. From what you've said, the song appears to be in the key of F minor.

In that case the D natural is easily explained. It occurs as the raised sixth degree of the F melodic minor scale.
The B note that you see in the Db7 chord is actually the seventh itself 'Cb' re-notated. As Db7 is (partly) foreign to the key, it is probably functioning as a secondary dominant seventh, possibly hinting at a modulation to another key such as Gb major.


   
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