Fifth Mode

This is a preview of the educational program A Jazz Improvisation Almanac which is under development for the Outside Shore Music Online School. Feel free to browse this preview and learn what you can from it. For a more completed product, though, check out the original freely browsable jazz textbook, A Jazz Improvisation Primer.

The fifth mode of the melodic minor has no common name. It outlines a dominant seventh chord:

[EXAMPLE]

This scale is not normally select to use over dominant seventh chords except as part of a ii-V-i progression in a minor key, where the melodic minor of the i chord may be used over the whole progression, in cases where the ii chord is a minor seventh chord:

[EXAMPLE]

This scale contains only the natural ninth rather than a flat or sharp ninth. Dominant seventh chords in minor keys seem to benefit from the extra color provided by these alterations. Because of this, and the fact that ii chord in a minor key is more often a minor seventh flat than an unaltered minor seventh chord, this usage is not very common.

This scale is the natural choice to use over a 7b13 chord, although this is rarely called for:

[EXAMPLE]

Copyright 2000 Outside Shore Music
Authored by Marc Sabatella

Fifth Mode