Mike's Music Musings

Minor ii-V-i chord progressions can be challenging for the beginning improviser, with vast harmonic possibilities that are not intuitive to unfamiliar ears.  While laying on the couch sick I was thinking about the triads that make up the melodic minor scale, as well as its applications.  Knowing that the locrian natural 9 scale (a mode of melodic minor) is a potential substitute for the locrian (a mode of the major scale) over the ii, and that the altered scale (also a mode of melodic minor) can be used over the V chord, I wondered what it would sound like to use the same triad quality over both chords in their different harmonic contexts.  I decided to start with my favorite triad, the augmented triad.

The May 2019 tune of the month is "Someday My Prince Will Come," originally from the 1937 movie "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" but now a classic jam tune for jazz musicians.  The song is also a waltz, written in a time signature of 3/4.  The song features several interesting harmonic devices, including passing diminished chords (both a biii dim and a #I dim).  This part of the tune can be challenging to solo over, so I've transcribed the improvisational phrases used by Miles Davis in his classic recording to see how he approaches soloing over this tune.  Note that I've also posted a blog about quoting the heads of jazz standards as one other possible approach.