Improvisation and coordination

Music Lesson: Dorian Scale with Minor Seventh Chords

So you'll have noticed that in Drifting, we've been playing one Dorian scale against two minor seventh chords in the left hand. For instance, D minor to E minor.

Why Does This Work?

1. Shared Notes:

   • Both of those chords contain notes from that scale.
   • By playing the two chords alternating, we've got all the notes of the scale.

2. Chord Relationships:

   • D minor and E minor are the two and three chords in the parent key, which is C major.
   • However, don't think of this as being in C; it's not in C, it's in D minor at this point.

This is why we can play those two chords without having to change scales.

Coordination Exercise

Let's think about the coordination of that. That was the suggested rhythm. Try the following:

• Five Finger Loop: Start by putting a five-finger loop on that.
• Extend: If you can do that, extend it to the whole scale.

Make sure you're playing the chords exactly where they're written:

• The second D minor chord should be with an A.
• The E minor chord should be with the D on the top.

They need to be together; otherwise, you're not getting that push with the syncopation when you're improvising over this tune.

Additional Practice

You've also got to do the same thing, of course, in F minor. That would be a good exercise, as well as in E flat minor. However, we don't want to play from the root of the chord all the time, as you know.

Consider Forward Motion

You might like to consider some forward motion. Rather than starting every scale or chord on the first beat of that bar, think about leading into it. You heard me do that in my solo.

Let's try adding a bit more forward motion:

• Pickup Notes: Play a pickup to lead me into each new chord before the bar line, before the left hand gets there.
• This will mean coming in on, say, the third beat or the fourth beat.

For example:

1, 2, A, 1, 2.

The notes of the pickup belong to the chord I'm going to. So if I'm in F and I want to go to E flat as it's coming up, I'll choose notes from the Dorian scale of the chord I'm going to.

It's kind of important to get into the habit of phrasing like that rather than always starting your ideas after the chord has changed.

Playing Around the Chords

The other approach you could try, which isn't related to forward motion, is to play around the notes of the chord.

• Think of the chords as D minor and E minor.
• Now, you should be playing notes of the E minor chord in the E minor bars.

By doing this, you're really nailing, really spelling out both of those chords, which we haven't done up to now. We just played the same scale horizontally over both of them.

It's worth giving both of those methods a try!