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Lesson Seventeen • Reharmonizing/Substituting Vol. II

PREVIEW

Once upon a time, February, to be exact this page had a lesson in which a single dominant chord/scale was used as an umbrella over a ii-7 V7. This time out, two Pentatonic Scales will be used to cover the ii-7 V7. But which ones?

First, a little background. A Pentatonic Scale is a 5-note scale consisting of scale steps 1, 2, 3, and 5 of the Major Scale. Guitarists typically learn the Pentatonic as a minor scale, related closely to the blues scale (speaking of "umbrellas"). Players of other instruments know it as a major sound, and since you will hopefully spend many hours playing with people who don't play guitar, it is important to speak the same language when talking about musical structures (have you seen my rant about reading music?)

Over the G-7 chord, a Bb Pentatonic Scale (think relative major) contains all of the chord tones plus the fourth degree, and is the most obvious choice.

Over the C7, there are more options available because dominant chords often have alterations such as b9, #9, etc. that other chord types don't typically use. In this case, may I have the envelope please, the winner is E Pentatonic.

Over the C7, the E Pentatonic yields the 3rd, #4 #5, Maj7 and b9. This is basically an approximation of the Altered Scale. Within a moving eighth-note line, or a strongly developed motif, the presence of the major 7th won't be heard as glaringly wrong, but perhaps a little bit strange. When you are playing in a creative context: strange = good.

Check out the following example:

Notice that the interval of a perfect fourth figures prominently over each chord. The transition from Bb Pentatonic to E Pentatonic is done by playing parallel fourths a half step apart. In effect, both notes in the interval resolve up a half step G to G3, C to C#. The resolution from C7 to F Maj7 is by half step from C# (b9 on the C7 chord) to C the fifth of F maj7.

Until next time,
AG

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