Barry Greene Video Lessons

Perhaps useful to point out that we're talking "Jazz Melodic Minor" here -- thankfully it is the same ascending and descending -- lowered third. Apparently, in other worlds, "Melodic Minor" is different ascending and descending. Those that know a lot more than me, please correct/clarify.

So let me see if I get this , suppose we want to play over G7 that resolves to the 1 chord Cmaj7
I would think Ab melodic minor and i would play the notes Ab, Bb, B, Db. Eb, F, G.... basically I'm taking Ab major scale and flatting the 3rd Is this the Altered scale or lydian flat 7?

You're getting there. First of all you're actually playing Galt (not lydian b7). Which is the 7th mode of Ab Melodic Minor. The trick to this stuff is to still get the "anchor" notes as they relate to G7. The way to get it in your ear is to play those notes but play from G to G. G, Ab (flat 9), Bb (sharp 9), Cb (min 3rd), Db (b5 or #11), Eb (#5 or b13) , F (major 7th).

Where people get confused is that you're referencing Melodic Minor 1/2 step up, to basically give you the notes to play. If you think in the context of Ab Minor, your lines will sound different than if you think Galt even though the notes are the same. It's all about how the different tones fall on the beat over the chord. Ab is the Root of Ab Minor, but over the G7alt it's the b9. If you target the b9 over an Altered dominant and land on it on a strong beat and stay there it sounds weird because your ear wants to pull it away. You can try it by just playing an Ab over G7. I doesn't work unless you add additional color. Try b9>#9>b9>root (Barry does this all the time).

Check out the Secret Jazz chord lesson. That is a breakdown of most of the modes of melodic minor and if you pay attention to the lines that Barry plays, the lines are a little different over each chord even though the collection of notes are the same.

Thanks for your help Kurt, so would what I referenced be considered the altered scale?

My bad you said its Galt, so the then the Lydian flat 7 is used when the V chord doesn't resolve to the 1 chord? So for the Lydian flat 7 I would play D MM over G7?
Thanks
Ken

Thank you! !

Ok I think I get this part. I'm practicing G Alt like Kurt said to do so over G7 if it resolves to the 1 chord my scale is

G, Ab,Bb,B,Db,Eb, F, But i can start from Ab if I want
G is the Root, Ab is b9 , Bb is #9, Db is flat 5 ,Eb is #5 F is the natural 7

This table has helped me make a little more sense of this discussion.

https://www.learnjazzstandards.com/blog/learning-jazz/jazz-theory/play-modes-melodic-minor-scale/

First, let me say, I'm not arguing here! I'm a novice and I defer to Barry's expertise as well as others. I can't play guitar right now because I'm at work, so instead I study theory!

Hear me out: I still think a mode is a generic interval pattern applicable to whatever scale. Let me try to make my point more clearly. Let's take a mode of the major scale. Let's take Mixolydian. The Mixolydian mode intervals are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 b7

G Mixolydian would be G A B C D E F (diatonic to C Major, fifth mode of major scale)

Now let's take the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale, Mixolydian sharp 4 (or "Lydian Dominant"). The intervals are:

1 2 3 #4 5 6 b7 -- SAME INTERVAL PATTERN AS MAJOR MIXOLYDIAN WITH ONE CHANGE: #4 instead of nat4.

F Mixolydian Sharp 4 (or "Lydian Dominant") would be: F G A B C D Eb (diatonic to C Melodic Minor, fourth mode of Melodic Minor Scale).

Are we saying the same thing?

Getting away from the Melodic Minor discussion, another barrier that many of us are challenged to overcome is position playing. Most of us with a Blues/Rock background started learning to improvise with the (minor) pentatonic scale. You show up to a jam session, and someone starts playing a I-IV-V in A, and your left hand shifts to the 5th position and that's where you get 90% of your licks. Over time, you learn to grab some notes from the next position up or some lower notes on the position below. Since most of the "cool stuff" is in that box, you never really explore the other pentatonic/blues scale positions.

It's easy to get caught up in that same rut with jazz where you learn phrases/chords/scales in one position, but don't bother to apply to the other four positions. You can easily tell you have this problem if you can't play a tune within five frets (chords and scales) I get that the melody may take you outside this range.

This is probably what I practice the most. I run through the form of a tune 5x. Once in each position. I can count my repertoire on hand because it's all a work in progress. I've picked some pretty safe tunes that have common changes, but incrementally as I find that I'm getting a little smoother and more comfortable playing at tempo, I can see improvement.

And on days that I don't, I grab my strat, crank up my amp and play some Led Zeppelin to remind myself that I can still play :)

I love rock, and blues even more, but after 40 years of listening to it and 20 years of playing it, I'm a little bored. Big tone and sustain seems like a lot of empty calories... I've got Radiohead tickets for this summer, so maybe I'll be inspired....

I'm not sure that Jazz will ever get boring.

My repertoire fits on one hand too! Satin Doll, Blue Bossa, Green Dolphin, Blues. Does So What count? But I can play 2-5-1 in four inversions on five string groups. That's 60 chords! I've been running through those progression almost every day since October 15 --my birthday, when I decided to recommit to learning jazz guitar after a two year break.

Slowly, but surely, those grabs are starting to show up in my 5 song repertoire. The chords and melodies are starting to get played in all sorts of unexpected ways throughout five positions. Through repetition practice, the fretboard is really starting to open itself up to me. Slowly, surely.

Somewhere recently I read something like this: "Time is the ally of the jazz guitar student." I've got to think of time as my friend. And every skill or position that I truly internalize into muscle and ear memory (this takes a long time, thousands of reps) becomes exponentially powerful when I try to learn the next thing, the next tune or whaterver (I hope!)

Oh, I can play the heads to Donna Lee and Relaxin' at Camarillo too, but in only one spot! I'm never going to try to learn Donna Lee anywhere else, but Camarillo wouldn't be too hard to move.

I do Autumn Leaves, Blue Bossa, All The things you are, There will never be another you, green dolphin, misty, blues and I'm taking a stab at Miss Jones. I always seem to get the A section down much better than the B, maybe because I'm always starting at the top of the tune. Maybe that's another bit of advice that I should follow, practice the bridge more....

by the way, your list is eerily similar to the beginning tunes from another on-line site where I spent a few years.....

I need to get a Rhythm Changes tune next ..... Oleo probably.

Any ideas on how to practice the altered scale?