Lick over dominant 7(9♭)

The last couple of days I have been trying to practice over the II - V - I cadence of chords, training both chord and scales. There is one particular scale that I really wish I could master. I find particularly challenging to apply such a scale. I'm talking about the altered scale.

It is a very rich scale in terms of sonority but when I play it note by note it sounds really odd to my ears - maybe that's why I personally find it difficult to use. This scale is mainly used over the dominant chord, and sounds very jazzy. I like to play metal solos but I'm stuffed to listen to pentatonic scales, for years I've been trying to add a little bit of fusion to my metal solos, I think it adds much more colour and tension to the sonority.

The altered scale is composed by the intervals: 1 - 2♭ - 2# - 3 - 5♭ - 5# - 7m. In some texts the 2# (which is the 9#) is written as 3♭. Although they refer to the same note, I prefer to emphasize its augmented ninth nature over a minor third. All the notes of the altered scale truly reflect some of the possible combinations a dominant chord can has:

V7(9♭) - V7(5#) - V5# ...

I've written two licks over the chords G7(9♭) and C7M. When I wrote the first one I was thinking in the very close relationship that the V7(9♭) chords have with diminished chords. If you play 7(9♭) chords every whole and a half tone you will notice that the sound you get is very similar to the one produced by a sequence of diminished chord - example:

G7(9♭) - E7(9♭) - C#7(9♭)
Fº         -    Dº      -     Bº

... and as diminish chords (include here 7(9♭) chords) are symmetric, you can substitute one by another.

So coming back to the topic, the first lick starts with the notes of the diminished scale (ascendlinging) and come back descending in the scale using the notes of the C#7M arpeggio (or the notes of Fm7 if you wish) - and yes the I#7M chord can prepare the I7M.

Play this sequence over the chords G7(9♭) - C7M

The second lick is totally constructed over the altered G scale. The last note is the major 7 note of C.

The same sequence of chords can be used here. Additionally the C#7M chord can be used like a passing chord before C7M.

II - V - I - Part one of many

This is probably the most famous sequence of chords in contemporary western music. It can appear simple and ordinary but when we start using this sequence to prepare all the chords in the (or minor) scale chord progression (borrowed chords) things start to get interesting.

But today I want to share a experience I had this afternoon whilst practicing this sequence of chords II - V - I in the scale of C major - one drawback here is that as my second post about music I'm jumping from intervals to a more ??? I wouldn't say complex but a little bit advanced example. But soon I will write about chord progression etc. 

Back to the topic I was looking some chords that can be used in this sequence and I was amazed to notice how similar they are.

One of the sequences I was trying is composed by: IIm6 - V7(5#)- I7M.

What I want to point out is how similar the chords IIm6 and V7(5#) are . Let's have a look.

Dm6

G7(5#)

C7M

In this sequence Dm6 has the role as subdominant, G7(5#) is the dominant whilst C7M is the tonic.

Let's look others coincidences now. If we look the chord Bm7(5b):

Bm7(5b)

If we compare it with Dm6 we have exactly the same chord (unfortunately the m6 chord I chose for this example omits the 5th note A in which case would make both chords exactly the same). So we can exchange one by another - and bear in mind that this doesn't apply only for this example.

Now lets look the Dm6 chord I chose. If we compare it with a normal G7 we have almost the same chord!

G7

This is really what fascinates me about music, everything seems to be connected.

Other interesting observation can be done if we take the Dm6 chord used here and change F in the 3th string by G# we get D^o. As any diminished chord is symmetric every 1 tone and a half, walking to the next symmetric position ascendingly we have F^o. Hummm, so we can play F7M - F^o - Dm6 and finally C7M. In this case, if I'm not wrong, F^o and Dm6 are doing the same job as subdominant chords as II degree.

I think I'll stop for now, but before, one more sequence I had practiced today - using the chord shapes used here - not all:

Dm6 - G7(5#) - Bm6(5b) - C9