Mike's Music Musings

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.

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.