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Playing over Changes Pt 2 - Minor Major 7 Chords

Tom Quayle 164 lessons

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Hi there and welcome to part 2 of 'Playing over Changes'. This time we'll be dealing with melodic minor chords and their associated scale choices and also with motivic development over changes. For the purpose of this tutorial a small piece of information:-

All named scales start from the root of the chord in question.

Our first chord type is called a Minor Major 7 chord and is chord I from the melodic minor scale. This chord is literally a minor triad with a major 7th interval on top, hence the rather strange name of minor major 7. Normally a minor triad would receive a minor 7th interval on top to create a minor 7th chord but the major 7th gives us a darker, more mysterious sound.

As with last month , the purpose of this tutorial is not to teach you the scales as such but the association of the scale with the chords types listed in the video and chart below. Learn these associations (also known as chord/scale relationships) and you'll rarely find a chord that you can't tackle or don't know what to play over.

Here's the chart for your perusal!

Chord Scale
MinMaj7 Melodic minor (from the root of chord)
MinMaj9 Melodic minor (from the root of chord)
Min6 Melodic minor/dorian (from the root of chord)
Minor triad Melodic minor/dorian/aeolian/phrygian/harmonic minor
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