Arpeggio
Applications
Lesson 4 - Altered
Dominant
Lesson 4 sample
Lyle:
The altered dominant chords and sounds are very colorful sounding to some,
down right awful to others! These chords and sounds are used in Jazz, Funk, and
Progressive Rock styles. They help allow you to play “outside the box” or
outside the scale/key. If you are new to altered dominant sounds, they could
sound bad at first. It's like trying a new food; it could take time to acquire a
taste for it.
Lyle: The basic dominant chord is made from a
major triad and a flatted 7th (1, 3, 5, and b7)
C major scale
and C7 arpeggio
Lyle:
The Altered dominant chords can have flat 5's (b5), sharp 5's (#5), flat 9's
(b9), and sharp 9's (#9), and combinations of these altered
tones.
Lyle: By playing several of the basic arpeggio
patterns that you've learned in this series, you'll be able to create colorful
altered dominant sounds while improvising against a single dominant 7
chord.
Lyle: Here's your jam track you'll be working
with:
Jam Track in
F#7
Lyle:
The jam track is a single F#7 chord
sound:
F#7
chord
Lyle:
The scale directly related to the dominant chord is the Mixolydian
mode:
F#
mixolydian
Lyle:
If you play a F#7 arpeggio against a F#7 chord you'll create a plain dominant
sound.
riff 1 -
F#7 arpeggio
riff 1 - F#7
arpeggio
F#, A#, C#, E = F#7 chord
1, 3, 5, b7, = Notes compared to
F#7
Lyle: To create a F#7b5b9 sound, Play a
dominant arpeggio up a flatted 5th.
riff 2 - C7 arpeggio
riff 2 - C7
arpeggio
C, E, G, Bb = C7 chord
b5,
b7, b9, 3, = notes compared to F#7 chord
Lyle: To create a F#13b5 sound, play a
Minor7b5 arpeggio up a flatted
5th.
riff 3 - Cm7b5 arpeggio
riff 3 - Cm7b5
arpeggio
C, Eb, Gb, Bb = Cm7b5
chord
b5,
13, 1, 3, = notes compared to a F#7
chord
Lyle: To create a F#7b9#5 sound, play a
Minor7b5 arpeggio down a Major 2nd.
riff 4 - Em7b5 arpeggio
riff 4 - Em7b5
arpeggio
E, G,
Bb, D = Em7b5 chord
b7,
b9, 3, #5, = notes compared to a
F#7 chord
Lyle: To create a F#7#9 sound, play a Minor7
arpeggio on the root of chord.
riff 5 - F#m7 arpeggio
riff 5 - F#m7
arpeggio
F#, A,
C#, E = F#m7 chord
1, #9, 5,
b7 = notes compared to F#7 chord
Lyle: Here's one way to play these crazy altered
dominant chords in order that we've just gone through:
altered
dominant chords
Lyle: Here's all 5 riffs/arpeggio sounds and
chords put together back to back, just like in the lesson sample. Notice the
shift in chord sound from one arpeggio to the other:
solo
example
solo
example
Lyle:
Pretty wild sounds there! You kind of have to open up your ear and let the altered
sounds settle in so you get used to
them.
gpg: Would
these work over a mixolydian progression or just a static chord? They seem real
over the top?
Lyle: This lesson is an example over a single
chord. If you have other dominant chords in a progression and you want to make
altered sounds for them, apply the rules from above for those
chords.
Lyle: This looks like a good time to take a
break. See you at the next lesson!