Playing Over Dominant Chords

Q: Like your style.  I need some review of scales to play with regards to how the Dominant Seventh Chord is resolving...functioning as a V chord or just a secondary Dominant (which I would play Mixo or Lydian b7).  If it is resolving to minor I'd play harmonic minor of the letter name of the chord it's going too.

A: here is the basic overview of the dominant scales. Let's take it by how the dominant chord is functioning. When I say functioning, I mean resolving to a I or i chord as in V-I or V-i or G7 - C or G7 - C-7. Non-Functioning means resolving somewhere else or possibly not resolving, as in G7 - F#maj7 or just a static G7 jam. Keep in mind, secondary dominants are for the most part functioning.

Melodic or Harmonic Minor

Q: I'm enjoying your Infinite Guitar book very much lately but I'm wondering why you dedicate so much time to Melodic Minor and not so much to Harmonic Minor. Why is Melodic Minor more important?

A: Good question. There isn't anything wrong with Harmonic Minor so to speak but Melodic Minor has more applications. Only one mode of Harmonic Minor is exclusively used and that mode is the 5th one, sometimes named the Phrygian Dominant mode. As an example, E to E in the A Harmonic Minor scale: E-F-G#-A-B-C-D. You would play it over an E7 or E7b9 chord and more often than not, it would get used over a V chord in a minor progression. For example in a rock application: Amin-G-F-E, you would want to play A natural minor over the first three chords and A Harmonic Minor over the final E chord. In a Jazz application, you would play it over a iio-V7 in A minor, as in Bmin7b5-E7b9-Amin7 (over the last chord, you wouldn't generally play A harmonic minor but A natural minor or A dorian. You can use Harmonic Minor over a i chord (as in A Harmonic Minor over an Amin chord) but it sounds like you are playing Mexican or Middle Eastern music.

Pentatonic Scales

Q: The way you use pentatonic scales fascinates me. Not only does it sound cool, it is easy since most of us already know the patterns. In your book and on your site lesson: superimposing pentatonic scales, you describe the guidelines perfectly well (as in "play a minor pentatonic scale on the 3rd, 6th and 7th of any major chord") but what is the theory behind this? How and why does it work?

A: Good question. I suppose you are at the point in your studies where you need to question these things. I did the same thing a long time ago. I learned about the concept of superimposing minor pentatonic scales years ago and by simply memorizing the rules I could apply the concept any time I saw fit. Let's review the basic rules:

For a major chord:

Play a minor pentatonic scale on the 3rd, 6th and/or 7th degree of the chord

Let's try it. Record yourself a long Cmaj7 or Cmaj9 vamp. What is the 3rd, 6th and 7th of this chord? The 3rd is E, the 6th is A and the 7th is B. If you can't understand this yet, this lesson is too much for you so you should go back and study theory starting with scales, chords and intervals. Go here for that lesson >>>

It doesn't matter what scale pattern you play as long as you play the proper pentatonic scales. E is the 3rd of the C chord so you can play an E minor pentatonic scale. Try it and you'll see. Be a little careful though because the usual lines you play might not work as well but in general all the notes are OK. 

Why does it work? Well, the best way to figure that out is by comparing the chord to the scale. Let's see, the scale looks like this:

E-G-A-B-D and compared to the chord, these notes are the 3-5-6-7-2 of the C major chord. These are all very consonant tones and match the chord with little rubbing or grinding. it actually looks like a C69 chord if you place all the notes on top of each other.

Next, let's look at the minor pentatonic scale from the 6th. The 6th of C is A so an A minor pentatonic scale is what we are looking for. The A minor pentatonic scale looks like this:

A-C-D-E-G and compared to the C chord: 6-1-2-3-5. All perfectly nice sounding notes over the C major chord. I bet someone out there figured this out already but what we have created is simply the C major pentatonic scale with here. Right? A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic are the same scales.

Next up, the minor pentatonic scale on the 7th. The 7th of C is B so B minor pentatonic is what we're looking for: B-D-E-F#-A or 7-2-3-#4-6. Now this looks very lydian to me because of the #4 (or #11 if you prefer).

All three of these scales combined give you the C lydian scale. Check it out yourself. C lydian: C-D-E-F#-G-A-B or 1-2-3-#4-5-6-7. 

Now, go on, get to work. Over your Cmaj9 vamp, try all three of these scales. 

The pentatonic scales always intrigue me because by simply taking 2 notes away from the 7 note scale you get something that actually has more personality. Less is more sometimes.

The next thing I did is look for the minor pentatonic scale patterns inside the scale itself. I mean, if all three pentatonic scale combined look like the lydian scale, all three must be inside somewhere. Take a look:

C lydian

Look, here is an E minor pentatonic scale:

And an A minor pentatonic scale:

And finally a B minor pentatonic scale:

Can you see that they are all inside the lydian scale?


We used our ears to make sure these scales work right? Next we used our eyes by looking inside the lydian scale and finding the three minor pentatonic scales. 

Now we'll use our brain. You can see this one more way. Remembering that there is a major pentatonic scale for every minor pentatonic scale:

E minor = G major 
A minor = C major and 
B minor = D major. 

Now look at the diatonic chords in the key of G major (G major is the same as C lydian):

G - Amin - Bmin - C - D - Emin- F#dim


Are you getting my point here? The three diatonic minor and the three diatonic major chords = the same three minor and major pentatonic scales that work over our C chord.


I've basically examined the minor pentatonic scales that work over major family chords. If you want to investigate more, go to the original lesson >>>

Playing Over Dominant Chords

Q: Hi Chris! I really dig your lydian dominant video on youtube and want to get that type of sound. I sort of understand how you mix different scales to get that kind of fusion vibe, what choices do you have for a dominant chord?

A: Thanks! Musicians really like soloing over dominant chords simply because you have so many choices. Actually, you can use all 12 notes, even the major 7th if you place it on an up-beat. As far as scales there are a bunch you can use and each has its own mood. Let's say you have to play over a static dominant 7 chord (the bigger the chord, the less choices you have so we'll go with a simple dominant 7 chord). Let's look at our possibilities, from inside to outside (click on the links for more on these scales):

1. Major pentatonic (1-2-3-5-6): this is a really inside sound and popular for all styles of music. 

2. Mixolydian (1-2-3-4-5-6-b7): no bad notes here really, you might want to be a little weary of the 4th as it sort of has issues with the 3rd in the chord (if you were playing over a 7sus4 chord, it would be perfect). 

3. Lydian Dominant (1-2-3-#4-5-6-b7): some people could actually argue that this scale is more inside that even the mixolydian scale. The reason is obviously because the issue regarding the 4th clashing with the 3rd in the chord has been dealt with. Regardless, the melodic minor scale, simply because of its intervalic structure, has a quirky sound, so I'll list it after the mixolydian scale on our list.

4. minor pentatonic or blues scale (1-b3-4-(b5)-5-b7): It might seem strange to put this scale at 4 on our list because out of all the scales, this one is probably the most accepted by our ears for a dominant chord. I think that is simply because we have heard and used it so much. But in all reality, it is a pretty abrasive sound if you think about it. Its got a b3 that you really have to be careful of because of the major 3 in the chord. Experienced players know that this note should be bend up. We still have the 4th to be weary of as well. 

5. H/W diminished (1-b2-#2-3-#4-5-6-b7): Against a 13b9 or 13#9 chord, this wouldn't be such an outside choice but against a plain old dominant chord, it has more tension, simply because of the flat and sharp 9ths (2nds). The scale is symmetrical so it has a very angular sound. You can create dramatic effects with this scale mixed with, let's say, the major and minor pentatonic scales. In a lot of ways, it looks like the blues scale right?

6. Altered (1-b2-#2-3-b5-#5-b7): Again, against an altered dominant chord, this scale is not so outside, but against an unaltered dominant chord, it will really rub. But by strategically placing it between two inside choices, you can create some great tension.