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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

PENTATONICS BY CHORD TYPE

Extract from Pentatonic & Hexatonic Scales in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2007 www.opus28.co.uk/jazzarticles.html

1.

WHAT TO PLAY ON A MINOR 7TH CHORD

AS OF now, we’ll be thinking primarily in terms of minor pentatonics (but keeping the relative major in the back of our mind).

There are three of the classic pentatonic structures that fit over a Dm7: DmPT EmPT AmPT

The easy way to remember these scales as a set is to notice that the roots form a II-V-I to the root of the Dm7 chord you’re playing over. But there’s more. Rearranging the inversions, we can see that the move from each pentatonic to the next involves just one note shifting at a time:

DmPT AmPT EmPT

Let’s now add the minor 6th pentatonic in D:

DmPT AmPT EmPT Dm6PT

Notice how the minor 6th pentatonic is one note different from both the E

minor pentatonic that it follows and the D minor pentatonic at the start of the line. As such it can be used as a bridge between the two, for the purposes of repeating the sequence.

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

Note also how as we move from D minor (containing root, third and seventh, D, F and C) to A minor (containing D and C) to E minor pentatonic (containing D) we gradually lose more of the defining chord tones of Dm7. This gives an increasing sense of moving away from the chord, without actually leaving the tonality. Playing the minor 6th pentatonic reintroduces the

third, the F, moving back into the chord sound.

The following is a combination of subjective description and harmonic observation as to the different flavours the scales can evoke:

D MINOR PENTATONIC: Fully “in”, at rest. Use of the fourth (G) thickens the pure chord sound.

A MINOR PENTATONIC: A bit more restless, without the presence of the third (F), the fourth (G) now serves to loosen, rather than thicken, the chord. Introduction of the ninth (E) takes the sound a little further out.

E MINOR PENTATONIC: Much more abstract sounding, since “colour tones” now predominate over essential chord tones. In a way, we are playing the II chord of the II chord. We’re also moving in the direction of playing the V that this II is paired with.

D MINOR 6TH PENTATONIC: Reappearance of F, the third, pulls the chord

back towards home. Yet this is still quite an “active”, charged sound because of a) emphasis on the 6th (an ambiguous tone in Dorian); b) the presence of the

tritone; c) the unusual number of major third intervals in use in a minor tonality; d) now we are really are playing the V this II is paired with.

It is well worth practising the preceding example in all inversions. This is primarily an exercise designed to assimilate the scales as a group. Remember to focus on the note that changes between each scale, and listen for the slightly different effects the scales produce over the root (a modal Dm groove playing in the background will help – the A section of So What, for instance):

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

Running through this exercise will also help you to familiarise yourself with all the inversions of these pentatonic scales.

We can also play B∅PT over Dm7 (remember this is the same thing as a “minorised” version of D major pentatonic):

Which is very similar to Dm6PT – compare the tones in the key of Dm: B∅∅∅∅PT D E F A B Root 2nd 3rd 5th 6th Dm6PT D F G A B Root 3rd 4th 5th 6th

This is an exception to our neat scheme of II-V-I movement – or is it? Well actually, it’s an extension of the same logic. To add this scale to the scheme, just think of II-V-I-VI movement (a turnaround) and remember that instead of a minor PT, the scale on the VI root is a half-diminished PT:

II V I VI

EmPT AmPT DmPT/Dm6PT B∅PT

There are plenty of common tones between this half-diminished pentatonic and the others, as well as a way of working it in with the others by moving just one tone. Have a scratch around and find these common points.

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

PRACTICE SESSION 1

NOW WE’RE going to practise improvising with the scales over a good long unchanging background of D minor. The aim is to play a large enough chunk of each particular pentatonic to strongly imply it before moving on to use another. Because of the large degree of commonality between the scales, it will often be possible to analyse three or four-note groups as belonging to more than one pentatonic, but this doesn’t matter – in fact, it’s a good thing. The important point is to satisfy yourself that you have clearly played a fragment from one pentatonic and then consciously move, during the same phrase, into another. Begin by playing long continuous eighth-note lines to gain familiarity with the movement between the scales and then work in rhythmic variation – longer note durations and rests – to sharpen up your phrasing. Also try working in some of the structures we looked at earlier, but not just in D minor, in all five pentatonics.

SOME SUGGESTIONS THAT CAN SOUND GOOD:

a) pickup composed of a number of notes from one scale leading into a long run from another;

b) figure from one scale ending on one different note from another; c) up one, down another or vice versa;

d) the same figure in E minor pentatonic and then D minor pentatonic for automatic parallel structure (and the reverse);

e) use an encircling figure to introduce a line; f) use an encircling figure to end a line.

PRACTICE SESSION 2

NOW LEARN the set a half-step up – Eb, F and Bb minor pentatonics, plus C half-diminished pentatonic. Not such a great chore, really. Run through the set of chords in all inversions and repeat the first practice session in the new context of Eb minor.

PRACTICE SESSION 3

REPEAT THE first practice session in D minor, but this time “plane” between the two keys. D minor is your home tonality, so play lines beginning in that, then play a semitone up and return to base.

“Planing” in the pentatonic style is equivalent to using to using chromatic tones in the more traditional scalar style. The basic approach is to maintain

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

the “open” pentatonic sound, but use semitonal motion for the whole scale sound to open up the chromatic possibilities. Incidentally, planing doesn’t necessarily happen consciously when you’re playing live. In order to get this sound down, you have to start by doing it deliberately when you’re practising and, as often as not, doing it wrong. Get a feel for what works in practice sessions and then it will start to appear naturally in your live playing.

You can also plane by dipping down a semitone. In fact, there are many commonly used strategies for modal planing. Here are a few examples to get you started:

a) Dm to Em and back (this is the basis of the vamp on So What);

b) Dm to Ebm to Em, then back to Dm via parallel phrase on Em minor;

c) Dm to Ebm to Fm and back (up and down the roots in a diminished scale fragment);

d) Dm to Abm (a tritone away) then up to Am and back via Am or Em; e) Dm to Fm to Abm to Bm to Dm (up a diminished chord).

There will be more on possibilities for outside playing later, in particular when we look at the range of possible substitutions for a II-V-I.

DON’T USE THE CYCLE OF FIFTHS TO PRACTISE!

YOU ARE obviously going to need to gain facility in all twelve keys. At this point, I’m going to be controversial and advise you not to practise these pentatonic groupings through the cycle of fifths. The reason is that just one pentatonic changes as you go round the cycle – for example, in D minor, you play D, E and A pentatonics; in G minor, you play G, A and D pentatonics. Now while there is something to be said for only having to learn one new scale at a time, it is very easy to get confused. If you’ve been playing D minor for half an hour and then switch to A minor, there will be a tendency for material from D minor to leak into the new key you are practising. You may wish to work with these ambiguities deliberately at a later stage, but for now what we’re after is precision.

Try practising keys at random, while keeping a list to make sure you don’t miss any out. Well, I say at random, but how about practising them in the order of the ones that most commonly occur in the repertoire that you play? Sure, you’re going to need F#m7 occasionally, but I’ll bet you’ll need Dm7 or Fm7 more often. There’s nothing wrong with targeting your practice at the

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

areas where you’re most going to need it. Just don’t neglect the nether regions later. Actually, by gaining confidence and facility in the keys you will naturally use more often, you are also training your ears, and fingers, for when the time comes to nail the other ones. And by practising planing, you’re also getting to know the “neighbours”.*

Incidentally, focusing on these sets of scales is a very efficient and relatively painless way to get inside those “remote” keys (B, Gb, E, and a few others – you know the ones I mean) that a lot of people never seem to get round to nailing. Just see how much understanding it gives your ears in the keys you thought you already knew, then apply the methodology to unfamiliar keys. If you do want to structure your practising, either play up by semitones or try one of the following sequences, which avoid sequential repetition of scale materials:

D F# Bb Eb G B E Ab C F A Db D Ab G Db C Gb F B Bb E Eb A

DORIAN MINOR

(2

nd

mode of major)

(Play the given pentatonic on the indicated degree of the home chord)

II – minor 7

th

PT

V – minor 7

th

PT

I – minor 6

th

PT and minor 7

th

PT

VI – half-diminished PT

The scales form a II-V-I-VI pattern on the root of the chord.

*

I was playing at a jam once when someone called Coltrane’s Equinox in the original key of C# minor (most people cop out and play it in C). The fact that I’d spent some time mucking about with planing on C minor blues saved the day…

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

2.

WHAT TO PLAY ON A MAJOR CHORD

WELL, I was pretty boring about the importance of relative minor/major pairings when we first started. Here’s where it comes good. Let’s look at what you would play over an F major chord.

There are two classic pentatonic structures that fit over F major: F major PT C major PT

Another pentatonic is also used over the major chord, built on the second degree of the scale, in this case, G major pentatonic. This gives us the #4th of

the key, turning the chord into F Lydian, an alteration you can always make on a major chord*:

#4th

If you wanted to, you could think of these as major pentatonics on I, II and V. But F is the relative major of D minor; G is the relative major of E minor; C is the relative major of A minor. So this set of scales can be seen as:

DmPT EmPT AmPT

Rearrange them, change the inversions and add the D minor 6th pentatonic

(which also nicely serves for F Lydian), and we get this set:

DmPT AmPT EmPT Dm6PT

*

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

You can play over F major by using the same set of pentatonics as you use over D minor. In a sense, you’ve already learned to play in F major by learning D minor.

Actually, the reason this works is not because we are dealing with the classical relative major and minors (Ionian and Aeolian modes respectively), but because we are dealing with Lydian major and Dorian minor, which are in the same relationship, a minor third apart. Compare:

C Ionian A Aeolian

C Lydian A Dorian

Perhaps you’ve read how the #4th is a really hip sound to play over major 7ths,

and perhaps you’ve also struggled to make it sound quite so hip? Well, the pentatonic context was absolutely made for #4th (Lydian) alterations,

primarily because the structure of the scales containing it helps to reinforce the colour tone. This is, in part, because in both cases, E minor pentatonic and D minor 6th pentatonic, the #4th (B) replaces the 5th (C).

There was another scale you played over Dm – B half-diminished pentatonic – and you can also play it over F major, which gives you another way of getting into the Lydian sound.

If you don’t want the Lydian alteration, restrict yourself to using minor 7th

pentatonics on the III and VI degrees (in this case EmPT and AmPT). Or you might find it easier to think of this pair as major pentatonics on the I and V degrees.

PRACTICE SESSION 1

SET UP a bass groove in F and play the set of scales you learned for D minor over it, noting how the scales imply different moods in the relative major. Be

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

aware in particular of the presence and effect of the #4th in the context of F

major.

So you can always play the relative minor pentatonic scale set over a major chord. Here is a list of all the relative major/minor pairings:

Major Minor C A Db Bb D B Eb C E C# F D Gb (F#) Eb (D#) G E Ab F A F# Bb G B G#

WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE

Incidentally, the major-minor pairing that, in my experience, causes people the most trouble is B major and G#/Ab minor. Usually musicians prefer to read and write Ab rather than G#, often regardless of whether it’s technically correct or not. This causes a psychological problem, since B is the most ferociously “sharp” key most people ever deal with (outside of classical music) and Ab minor is one of the most resoundingly “flat” keys. The fact that the two are related can cause wailing and gnashing of teeth.

You need to spend some time on these scales, learning to deal with the dual identity of Ab and G# minor. If you’d rather do this in the context of tunes – and who wouldn’t – look up tunes by Michel Legrand, who at one time rather specialised in this zone where the worlds of sharps and flats collide. The second most troubling pairing is E major and Db/C# minor, for the same reason.

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

A good approach is to practise the pairings together, playing the scale set over, for instance, a D minor groove first, then changing the groove to F major and using the same materials, comparing the different effects they produce in the related major context.

In this way, you train yourself to associate the relative pairs. Also, you are technically practising a major and a minor chord at the same time – with the caveat that the scale materials produce different effects in minor and major contexts. Whatever you do in minor will also work in major (and vice versa) but it will have a different effect. Be aware, keep your ears about you.

PRACTICE SESSION 2

YOU CAN use planing in major as well. First, run through the scales a half-step up – the pentatonics that go with F# major (Lydian) are the same scales that go with Eb minor (Dorian). Run through the set of chords in all inversions and repeat the first practice session in the new context of F# major.

PRACTICE SESSION 3

REPEAT THE first practice session in F major, but this time plane between the two keys. F major is your home tonality, so play lines beginning in that, then play a semitone up and return to base. Then try experimenting with some of the other planing approaches we looked at for minor chords and listen to how they sound in the relative major. You may also want to try out more “majorish” planing root movements such as F A C, as opposed to the “minorish” planing root movements we looked at earlier. Or try crossing them over (use “minorish” planing on a major chord and vice versa) for comparison.

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

LYDIAN MAJOR

(4

th

mode of major)

Play the same as for the relative minor (found a minor 3

rd

below/major 6

th

above the major root).

IONIAN MAJOR

(1

st

mode of major)

III – minor 7

th

PT

VI – minor 7

th

PT

or (easier to remember)

I – major PT

V – major PT

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

3.

WHAT TO PLAY ON A DOMINANT 7

TH

CHORD

THERE ARE a number of different options we have when improvising over a dominant 7th chord, which is the chord type that allows most scope for

alteration and substitution. Having said that, let’s begin with the case of the plain vanilla dominant chord without alterations. Let’s look at the pentatonic scales that fit a straight and simple G7 chord:

EmPT/GMPT Dm6PT B∅PT

These are probably not as convenient to remember as the set used on minor and major chords. So let’s reorder them and change the inversions around to give us this:

Dm6PT EmPT/GMPT B∅PT

Note how, again, we have derived a system whereby just one note changes between each scale. Unlike the set used on minor and major chords, this set doesn’t cycle, rather it forms a seesaw with the basic E minor pentatonic (the relative minor of G) at the pivot point. The E minor pentatonic is pretty easy to relate to G7 (relative minor, or just plain G major pentatonic, if you prefer), and it isn’t so hard to become familiar with the notes that shift to change the scale to D minor 6th and B half-diminished pentatonics. In this case, it may be

easier to think of the major PT built on the root G than the minor 7th of the

relative minor E.

Run through a matrix covering all inversions in a seesawing motion: EmPT/GMPT Dm6PT EmPT/GMPT B∅PT

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

It must be said that most jazzers rarely play an unaltered dominant (as a rule of thumb, beboppers preferred 7b9, postboppers preferred 7alt). I’m often guilty of this myself – it’s almost as though the mere sight of the number 7 provokes jazz soloists into some sort of drooling Pavlovian desire to twist the chord as much as possible. But try not to neglect the humble straight dominant. (Incidentally, a surprising number of Beatles tunes are Mixolydian in flavour.)

DOMINANT

(5

th

mode of major)

I – major 6

th

PT

III – half-diminished PT

V – minor 6

th

PT

SUS DOMINANT

THE SUS chord is an interesting case of reinvention. Sus is short for suspended, and the suspension referred to is the fourth of the dominant, which in traditional Western classical and church music used to resolve to the third – in the case of G7, C moving to B (a typical “Amen” moment). In the modern context, with reference to jazz (particularly from the mid-1960s onwards in tunes like Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage, McCoy Tyner’s Passion Dance and John Coltrane’s Naima), the fourth doesn’t resolve but remains “in suspension”. It’s a kind of aural emulsion. So the scale that goes with a sus chord is the dominant mode, with the important distinction that the diatonic fourth is promoted from an “avoid” note to a desired scale tone.*

The motion from C to B in a C major context is a crucial part of the movement from Dm7 to G7 (II-V). The sus chord contains the II-V part of a diatonic progression in one chord. An alternative way of notating a G7sus chord is Dm7/G, and this describes what is going on harmonically. So if you want to imply a G7sus chord, you can simply play the same pentatonics you play for

*

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

D minor. Assuming you’re not responsible for what the bass is doing, playing a sus substitution is rather like simplifying a II-V-I into a II-I.

Concentrating on the fourth structures in the scale to emphasise the root, 4th

and b7th (what we could call the chord tones of sus) will help. Although,

strictly speaking, the success or failure of the sus sound depends on how the chord is voiced in the rhythm section. Rhythm players take note – know what the sus 4th sounds like and be ready to collapse your II-V into a Vsus when

you hear a soloist emphasize it (you’ll make friends and get more gigs). Soloists take note – a rhythm section isn’t just for Christmas.

THE SUS PENTATONIC

THERE IS a “special case” pentatonic scale that lets you emphasise what we might call the chord tones of a sus dominant – the root, major 3rd, natural 4th

and dominant 7th. If we take the minor 7th pentatonic on the same root and

simply raise the third a semitone, we get the following scale for G7sus:

This can also be arrived at by raising the 5th on a D minor 7th pentatonic, but I

find it easier to remember as an alteration to a minor on the same root. In fact, improvising on a sus chord is much like improvising on the same minor 7th,

but with the 3rd raised to major.

By the way, you could go as far as to say that a certain “modern” sound is achieved by broadly treating all dominants as sus chords.

The scale does have other potential uses (it will work over the related II chord, in this case, Dm7) but it is best used as a convenient way into the sus sound.

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Extract from Pentatonics & Hexatonics in Jazz, © Jason Lyon 2006-7

SUS DOMINANT

(5

th

mode of major with no “avoid” note)

Play the same as for the related Dorian minor (the II of the V you

are playing).

or

Play the sus pentatonic

References

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