Minor chords are chords that give us the most freedom in jazz, second only to the dominant seventh chord. Beyond the 1, b3, 5, a minor chord can also be paired with a 6 (Cm6), b7 (Cm7), or even a natural 7 (CmM7).
Today, we’re going to talk about five ways that you can absolutely devour minor chords in your solos. Each of the concepts will be increasingly difficult, so if you want to learn more, make sure to check out our YouTube video 5 ways to devour minor chords, as well as our resource 75 Phrases on Minor Progressions.
Now let’s get playing!
Contents
Diatonic playing
Our first way to nail minor chords comes directly from the chord scales—that’s diatonic playing. For example, if your minor chord is acting as the ii in a ii-V-I, your standard choice for this chord is the Dorian scale.
However, if it’s functioning as the I chord, such as a minor iiº-V-i, you can choose a variety of minor scales. Some of the most popular options are again the Dorian scale, but also the melodic minor.
Let’s check out an example.
So what do we have going on here? Our progression is a i7 to bVI7 back to i7. This is a progression you’ll come across in various jazz standards, and if you ever have a situation where you need to vamp on a minor 7 chord for an extended duration, you can actually imply this chord as a substitution within your minor vamp solo for some extra colors. To note, this solo would sound just as good over just the Fm7 chord.
As you can see in the first Fm7 chord, every single note is diatonic to F dorian. We start on the b3 and play back this Ab melodic cell (1, 2, 3, 5) then we’re going to jump up to the nine of this chord and walk down the F dorian scale. Now the theme of the entire line is to play diatonic, so when we arrive at the Db7 chord, everything is completely diatonic, just this time in Db mixolydian. So these first four notes of the chords are a four-note diatonic enclosure around the third. Then we’re going to play a version of this chord arpeggio, 3, 5, 1, b7. This is going to allow us to smoothly voice lead with a half step interval up to the fifth of our Fm7 chord. We’ll continue to play back into the F dorian scale. We have a 1, 2, 3, 5 shape, this time in Fm and it’s going to be backwards, so we’re descending down the shape. This is classic jazz vocabulary—this is the melody of Honeysuckle Rose.
Now to look at using the melodic minor scale, let’s check out another example.
What do we have here? Well we have a minor iiº-V-i, and for the iiº chord, we’re playing diatonically, using D Locrian. For the V chord, we’re using G Phrygian Dominant, then for our i7 chord, we’re playing diatonic to C melodic minor. The benefit here is that we can use either the minor or natural 7, but the natural 7 is going to sound great as a leading tone back toward C.
This line starts off with a diatonic enclosure around the b3 and then from here we’re going to ascend to Ebmaj7b5 (or you could think of this as Ebmaj7#11). This gives a nice Lydian sound from the Eb, which fits perfectly nicely within this chord, giving you the b3, 5, 6, and 9. These next four notes are a long decoration around the root, which we target on this downbeat here, this B natural right before the target confirms that this is the C melodic minor scale. We play this two-note diatonic enclosure around the root, and we’re going to drop down to the fifth. Then we’ll play a two-note enclosure around the third to end back on the root.
Approach notes & enclosures
Our second way to demolish minor chords in our solos is to incorporate some melodic chromaticism through approach notes and enclosures.
Let’s check out what we have here. We’ve got a minor iiº-V-i in G minor. This time the entire line uses chromaticism, such as in this half diminished chord. This B natural is acting as a chromatic approach tone to the b3 of this chord. Then we’re going to ascend the A Locrian scale and arrive to the D7b9.
The first four notes are diatonic to D Phrygian Dominant, until we arrive at the F natural here, which is acting as another chromatic approach tone to target the F#, the third of this chord. Now we’re going to jump up to the b9 and dip down to the b7. Now this C# is another chromatic approach tone to target the fifth of our Gm chord. After landing on this D, we’ll dip to G#, which is another non-diatonic tone, the chromatic approach to the ninth. Then we’ll skip up to the 11th and walk to the b3 with this chromatic passing tone in between this B natural. Now we’ll dip down to the fifth and play yet another chromatic passing tone between the fifth and the sixth, this D#. And finally, this line ends on the root, slightly delaying it with just an eighth note, embellishing it with this ninth first.
Melodic cells
Our next way we can destroy minor chords is through melodic cells. A melodic cell is a small melodic fragment, usually about four notes that we can transpose rapidly to give us some compelling dissonance.
Here’s an example of a melodic cell.
Played over the G7 chord, we have a 1, 7, b7, 1. This could also work over a Gm chord. It could also work over a Dm7 chord, giving us the 11, 3, b3, 11. And it could work over many other things, like A altered, which gives us a b7, walking down to the b6, returning back to the b7. Or on an Fmaj7 chord, starting us on the 9, walking us down to the root, returning back to the 9. As you can see, there are a lot of possible choices.
Now let’s try this cell in a minor context.
Alright, let’s try breaking this one down. After this chromatic approach to the root, I dip up to the 4, where we can see the first instance of this melodic cell in the second half of our Em7b5 chord. It’s going to start us on the b3, chromatically walk down to the b9, which is diatonic to the E Locrian scale, and we’ll return back up to the b3. Now we’ll play this cell again on our A7b9 chord, starting on the sixth. We’ll play the 6 then walk chromatically down to the 5 and return back up to the 6.
This ascending chord is a beautiful variation of the 1, 2, 3, 5 in B major, we’ll play 3, 5, 1, 2. Being that it’s in B major, this gives us the #4, 6, 2 and 1. This is a beautiful color for this chord. From there, we’ll smoothly voice lead back onto the b7 of the Dm7 and play this nice melodic cell again, this time in C, it’s going to give us the b7. We’ll walk down to the b6 and back up. The b6 gives us a D aeolian (or natural minor) sound.
After this melodic cell, we’ll go to the 5 and dip down to the root, then we’ll ascend up the D minor triad. From there, we’ll step down to the 5 and play the melodic cell again, this time in G. We’re going to play G, which is the 4 of this chord, then chromatically walk down to the b3 and return back up to the G. Then we’ll end off on the root again, slightly delayed by this eighth note 9 first.
is still a nice color, nonetheless, that you can absolutely work with. After this melodic cell, we'll go to the five and dip down to the root, and we'll ascend up the D minor triad. Then we'll step down to the fifth and play the melodic cell again,
Pentatonic shifting
Alright, we’ve made it to our fourth way to annihilate minor chords in our solos, and this one is pentatonic shifting. This is where we’ll smoothly switch to non-diatonic tonalities and resolve ourselves back in, all using the pentatonic scale. Let’s check out the example from our 75 Phrases on Minor Progressions resource.
Breaking this one down, we have that i7 to bVI7 progression again. The first measure is entirely E minor pentatonic, which is diatonic to the Em7 chord. Now for our C7 chord, we’re going to play a Bbm pentatonic sound. The reason why is that we want to fulfill a pentatonic shifting technique which can be called “pentatonic shifting to the nearest degree.” What that is, is where we voice lead to a different pentatonic scale using a half-step interval. That’s exactly what happens here.
Take a look at the final note of the Em7, the E. Now look at the very first note of our C7 chord, F. This interval is a half step. When this happens you have four available minor pentatonic scales to choose from that contain this note F. We could do Bbm pentatonic, where F is the fifth. We could do Fm pentatonic where F is the root. We could do Dm pentatonic where F is the third, and we could do C minor pentatonic, where F is the fourth.
In our case, we’re going to go with the Bbm pentatonic and ultimately that will leave you with a lot of non-diatonic notes. This creates a lot of tension and resolution, like we do with the Em7 chord, where we voice lead with another half step interval back into the E minor pentatonic sound, starting on its fourth on the second half of the measure. We’re going to stray away from Em pentatonic and just play the upper structure from the fifth, but backwards. So essentially this is a descending Bm7 arpeggio—7, 5, b3, 1, but it’ll give you the Em7’s 4, 9, b7, and 5. And then we’ll resolve back on the root of Em7, which is also the third of this implied bVI7, C7.
Triad pairs/hexatonics
We made it to our last topic, and this one will absolutely obliterate your minor 7 chords! This is through triad pairs and hexatonics. Triad pairs are when you alternate between two different triads to create one colorful sound. Hexatonics are when you put all six notes of that triad pair in their closest intervals, resulting in a six-note scale. Let’s take a listen to this phrase from the book, which clearly showcases the use of triad pairs through a minor progression.
Alright, let’s analyze this first one. This takes place over the same progression, our i7 to VI7. We’ve got our first Cm7 chord with a B major triad. This C minor gives us the 1, b3, 5 where the B major gives us the b7, 9, and 11. The first triad in this phrase plays it as a four-note figure, 1, 3, 5, 3 and then for the B major triad we’re going to play this same shape but backwards—5, 3, 1, 3.
Now for the A7 chord, we’re going to grab a different triad pair. This is going to be two major triads a whole step apart—Bb major and Ab major. This is completely non-diatonic, as we got a major 7 from this Ab, but that’s ok, just like with pentatonic shifting if you create dissonance and then resolve it swiftly, any dissonance can sound good.
For this phrase, we’re going to play the 5, 3, 5, 1 of Bb, and then for the Ab, we’re going to play the 1, 3, 5, 3, resolving back into the tonality of Cm7, voice leading up with a half step interval to the root.
In the remainder of the phrase, we’re just going to play with some nice melodic chromaticism, playing the root, dipping down to the fifth, with an iteration of the Cm bebop scale, which is also the fifth mode of the F# dominant bebop scale. This is also going to give us the passing tone between the F# and the E, allowing us to have this third of the minor 7 chord on the downbeat. From there, we’ll play this E major pivot arpeggio, where we take the last three notes of the arpeggio and drop them all down an octave. For the final measure, we imply that this is still a Cm7 chord, playing the root and the sixth, but implying that this is an A7 chord, we’re going to play the third and the b9.
That’s all for today! If any of this was confusing or if you want to dig a bit deeper, make sure to check out our YouTube video 5 ways to devour minor chords, as well as our resource 75 Phrases on Minor Progressions.
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