Soloing Concepts in Dorian Modal Tunes

So, once you've played the head of the major seventh heaven, there's then space for soloing. I'm just going to introduce a few concepts for you to think about when you're soloing.

Exploring the Dorian Scale

In these modal tunes, where it's based on a Dorian scale, it's really nice to explore:

• Chord tones
• Passing notes

We've played them all very close together as a scale:

1. Root
2. Second
3. Third
4. Fourth
5. Fifth
6. Sixth
7. Seventh
8. Octave

Using Non-Chord Notes

What I want to do is focus on the non-chord notes, the passing notes: the second, fourth, and sixth, and I want to put them up an octave to create a little bit more space.

From the bottom, we're going to get the:

• Root
• Third
• Fifth
• Seventh

as per our usual minor seventh voicing.

But then I'm going to take:

• The second and instead of playing it here, I'll play it up an octave.
• Same thing with the fourth.
• Same thing with the sixth.

And I'll end up with this voicing:

We end up with all the notes of the mode sounding at the same time.

The Sound on Piano

On the piano, this chord will sound like this:

Being able to spread out your scale and shoot some notes up an octave really gives you those lovely, colorful, expressive notes at the top.

Melody Structure

I really like the G sharp. I often start my melody here. I also enjoy ending on the C sharp on the ninth.

• It's not a chord tone, but it's a really colorful, expressive-sounding note.
• It gives a little bit of ambiguity and mystery to my melody.

Bridge Melody

Notice how the bridge melody is exactly the same but an upper semitone. This is quite a popular pattern used by Miles Davis.

What I've already mentioned, but also check out John Coltrane's "Impressions."