Mike's Music Musings

The song "4 on 6" by Wes Montgomery is a reharm of "Summertime."  It features several ii-V progressions in a row and I was interested in how Wes tacked soloing over such fast changes.  He uses a lot of repetition, upper structure extensions, and outlines the changes in relatively simple ways.  When you have that many changes blowing by, especially not all from a common key, you have to be pretty straightforward with the harmony.

The #4 interval is tense, but it is my favorite to use.  It sparks interest in your phrase because it is a wider interval than the major or minor third interval you play when outlining arpeggios, or the half or whole step you get when playing scales.  To unlock this sound, you need to study each scale and see where there is an intrinsic #4 interval.  In dominant, this is between the major 3 and b7.  In dorian, it's between the b3 and major 6.  These intervals make up several other scales, such as harmonic minor, and you could play it in major if you go for a lydian sound.  Here are some examples over  minor 2-5-1s which emphasize this interval.

Minor 2-5-1 progressions can be tougher to solo over than their major counterparts, but here's a strategy to spell out the changes using just two minor triads a half step apart.  This is a follow up from another post I've written about to use two augmented triads a half step apart to solo over the same changes. This example shows a minor 2-5-1 in Dm7.  Over the Em7b5 you can play an A minor triad, A being the fourth degree of E locrian.  Over the A7alt you can play an Bbm triad, the first degree of the Bb melodic minor scale (equivalent to A altered scale).  Over the Dm7 you can go back to the Am triad, which is starting from the 5th degree of D dorian.

Here are a few of my favorite Scofield licks over "Tootie Ma is a Mighty Big Thing." The first two licks are from the B section, which is very close to (but not exactly) the Rhythm Changes bridge. The progression walks down from Db7-C7-Cb7, then to F7 (the tritone sub of Cb7), then to E7, which is the V of the next chord, A. So the bridge is essentially a walkdown to the V of I. Like Rhythm Changes, the progression does cycle dominants over two bars each which descend by a half step (tritone subs of the traditional changes). So these lines are mostly transferable to any Rhythm tune. Db7-C7-Cb7-E7 lines would also work over Db7-Gb7-Cb7-E7 (traditional Rhythm Changes bridge). Here's the first one. It outlines the changes pretty basically, then does a long F augmented triad run until it ends up hitting the E7 right at the end. This second line is has a much more rock/blues sound with half and whole step string bends. I love the lick over C7! This lick is pla...

Here's a Cory Wong lick I transcribed from his playing with the Fearless Flyers.  The lick is over a IV-I in "Under the Sea" and is relatively simple, and sounds great uptempo.

I was watching a Barry Harris masterclass video about the diminished scale, where he was talking about groupings of four dominant chords based on their relation to the same diminished scale.  I was already aware of this concept, having learned about the diminished scale and that any note of a diminished 7th chord could be lowered by a half step to create a dominant chord.  What struck me is that since these four dominant chords are related, could the dominant V in a ii-V-I progression be substituted for any of its three "siblings"?  How would these related cadences sound compared to the straight V?  I decided to investigate.

This post is a follow up from my last, which explored the use of augmented triads from the melodic minor scale.  I was interested in the other triads that make up melodic minor, especially since all but the augmented triad are featured twice consecutively.  This unique feature makes melodic minor especially ripe for the use of triad pairs as a soloing technique.