lupin62

Hello, I am a college student and I was wondering how you handle minor chords in blues scale progressions. I've found sometimes that they can throw a wrench in the works and make everything sound weird. I was told by a trustworthy source (another student) that if you just omit the third of the chord then you should be fine. (would this mean that if you have a diminished chord you would have to omit the third and fifth? So many note decisions on that if it's true) Anyways ... I was just wondering that as an overall question. I was also wondering how else you could approach it because I've been told there are other ways to deal with it.

hubnub

Lupin,

First off, you don't want to omit the 3rd and the 5th on any diminished chord b/c they make the chord. Second of all you never want to omit the 3rd or the 7th of any chord b/c they determine chord quality (major vs minor vs donimant, etc)

If I'm understanding you correctly, you're talking about playing a minor blues scale over a minor blues? in that case it would be (in our G) G-Bb-C-C#-D-F. The Bb and the C# are called "blue notes" they give the blues scale it's sound. It has a lot to do with early jazz, which would be to much to get into here.

My guess is that your ears haven't caught up with the sounds yet..... meaning what sounds good to your friend doesn't sound good to you. What you need to do is sit by a piano and play a chord (in this case G minor G-Bb-D-F) and hold down the sustain pedal and play the blues scale over the chord to hear what that sound is over the chord (make sense?).

Other ways to approach minor chords are with pentatonics and the Dorian mode. In jazz the Dorian mode of the Major scales is use pretty extensively over minor chords. Hip to all the modes of the major scales? In this case, the Dorian mode would be F major starting on G and going from G to G or the 2nd mode of F major. This mode also works well for any minor chord functioning as a ii chord in a ii-V7-I. Just play the Dorian mode of the chord in the progression.

Pentatonics are good to b/c you can come up with many variations and colors. For example, a pentatonic is a 5 note pattern usually 1-2-3-5-6 or 1-2-4-5-6. With that in mind, take that pattern and build a pentatonic off of every note in the G Dorian mode. 1-2-4-5-6 = G-A-C-D-E, A-Bb-D-E-F, etc. Play them against the piano and see how each sounds over G minor.

Always do this with the piano so you can hear what these sounds are like against the chords. You can use simple voicings for now like 3-5-7 or 3-7-9 with the root of the chord in the left hand.

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes.