A Second Improvisation Method – Lydian ♭7 Let’s not even bother putting a name on that. That would leave us with an Ionian scale, ♭2, ♭6. Since C♭ is “really” B, we just have to adjust the D’s and A’s of the scale to be D♭'s and A♭'s. This is one of the easiest ways to do it.įor instance, in the key of C major, using D♭ 7 as the sub-V/I, the notes of the chord are D♭-F-A♭-C♭. We can use the “basic method” of improvising over the substitute dominant, by altering the notes of the key which are different when the chord is compared to the key. This fulfills the function of the chord without adding unnecessary chromaticism. If you think about that, flattening the fifth can have a more consonant result with the original key. Since the root of the chord is out of the key, the perfect fifth is also likely out of the key, too. The substitute dominant chord is often played as a dominant 7 flat 5. It often has a ♭5 (or a ♯11, which can imply ♭5).It resolves down by half step, as in from D♭ 7 to C.It is a chord that is outside of the key.It is normally a dominant 7 th chord, though a major triad can sometimes imply it.We’ve got a whole lesson on understanding substitute dominant chords in case you’re a bit unclear on what those are.Ī substitute dominant usually has these features: Choosing a Scale to Play for Substitute Dominantįirst of all, would you recognize a substitute dominant chord if you saw one? So to get start with that idea, try playing that whole tone scale to deal with improvising over these chords and later on you'll try Lydian flat 7 as well. That's the approach I'm gonna use in the demonstration. That works fairly well and it's pretty approachable. That would normally be a Lydian b7, which is like a Mixolydian scale for a dominant chord, but with sharp 11, which is basically the same as b5.įor something even more straight forward, just grab a chord tone of the substitute dominant chord and play a whole tone scale. The next thing we can do is play a chord scale associated with that dominant 7 flat 5 sound. I'm not going to demonstrate that example because it can produce unpredictable results as we're assuming that the rest of the C major notes will work on the chord as long as there is no conflict with a chord tone and that can produce some unusual results, although you can try it yourself-but that is one of the most fundamental ways to learn to improvise on different chords.
So we would change all E to Eb and all D to Db.įor the Db7b5, we have Db, F, G, B. The first way is to just change whatever notes of the key were changed by the new tones in the chord.įor Eb7b5 we have Eb, G, A, Db. These chords are often played with a flat 5, as more often than not the natural five is out of the key, making the chord sound more tense, but the flat five is actually in the key, making the chord fit a bit better. And I'll take the V7 and convert it to a subV of I, Db7. Now I'll turn the VI-7 to a sub V of II, Eb7. If we play a Db7, that chord has Db, F, Ab, Cb (B), which means it has the same tritone so it will work as a dominant resolution. The key element of this chord is the B and F, which is a dissonant "tritone" interval. For instance, the dominant chord for a Cmaj7 is G7, which has G, B, D and F. They work by imitating the dominant chord that would normally resolve to the target. Substitute dominant chords are dominant 7th chords which resolve down by half-step.
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