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improvising over the blues/sus4 sound using different modes and scales

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Dorian or Mixolydian? An ambiguous, bluesy quality

“Asteroid B612″¹ is, for the most part, a modal composition built around a two-bar ostinato (cf. sheet music² above). Its harmony is quite mysterious, and I have in fact been trying to wrap my mind around it for years³. There is indeed a sense of two distinct, overlapping tonics: the F (on every downbeat in the piano’s left hand) against the prominent Bb in the bass line. I chose to write the composition in the key of F minor, because the Db (minor sixth, implying F natural minor/Aeolian) appears often. But the note D (the major sixth, which would transform the F minor scale into an F Dorian mode) is also present (see end of measures 1 and 3). The D’s appearance alongside the Db gives the pattern a bluesy feel, and thus hints at the fact that Bb is probably the right choice for a stable tonic here (because Bb sits a minor third below Db and a major third below D, and the ambiguity of the minor/major third is characteristic of blues harmony).

Assuming that Bb is indeed our tonic leaves us with two options: Bb Dorian (equivalent to F natural minor/Aeolian) or Bb Mixolydian (equivalent to F Dorian).

Let’s summarize these findings in a simple table:

F natural minor/Aeolian <=> Bb DorianBb C Db Eb F G Ab Bb
F Dorian <=> Bb MixolydianBb C D Eb F G Ab Bb
Table 1. Scale/mode possibilities for Asteroid B612 (main ostinato)

Dorian and Mixolydian: the bebop dominant scale and the I7/IV7 chords (tertial harmony)

Looking at the totality of the pitches present in the ostinato (cf. the sheet music at the top of this post), we have the following notes in chronological order of appearance (reading from bottom to top, i.e. bass first, then piano left hand, and finally right hand):

BbFEbGCDbAbD
Table 2. Pitches from Asteroid B612’s main ostinato in chronological order of appearance

All we really need to look at here is measure 1 in order to get these eight pitches. The same result can also simply be obtained by combining the pitches from the Bb Dorian and Bb Mixolydian modes: Bb C [ Db + D ] Eb F G Ab. Now, by shifting our tonic from Bb to Eb, we can rearrange these pitches into an Eb bebop dominant scale:

EbDDbCBbAbGF(Eb)
EbDbBbG(Eb)
DCAbF
Table 3. Eb bebop dominant (descending, 1st row), with the Eb7 (IV) and Bb9 (I, rootless voicing) chords outlined underneath (2nd and 3rd rows respectively)

Notice that by playing and skipping every other note, descending from the high Eb, the Eb7 chord is formed (Eb D Db C Bb Ab G F, chord tones 1, 3, 5, b7 in bold). Alternatively, playing/skipping every other note descending from the note D as your starting pitch will yield a Bb7 rootless voicing (D Db C Bb Ab G F Eb, chord tones 3, 5, b7 and tension 9). These are the I and IV chords characteristic of blues harmony.

Lydian scales, major pentatonics, and the sus4 chord (quartal/quintal harmony)

The group of eight pitches presented in Table 2 can also be seen as two distinct Lydian scales: Db Lydian (Db Eb F G Ab Bb C) and Ab Lydian (Ab Bb C D Eb F G). Just like George Russell in his Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, let’s reorganize our pitches as perfect fifths stacked on top of each other:

DbAbEbBbFCG
AbEbBbFCGD
Table 4. Db Lydian and Ab Lydian scales presented in ladders of fifths

From these Lydian scales, the following four major pentatonics can be derived: Db, Ab, Eb, and Bb.

DbAbEbBbF
AbEbBbFC
EbBbFCG
BbFCGD
Table 5. Db, Ab, Eb, and Bb major pentatonic scales presented in ladders of fifths

As you can see above (Tables 4 and 5), the Db and D pitches, the ones responsible for the bluesy harmonic tension we’ve been discussing all along, are at the extremities of the ladder of fifths. The remaining six “stable” pitches in between form an almost complete (without any kind of third) Bb13sus4 sound (chord tones 1, 4, 5, b7 and tensions 9, 13).

Dominant pentatonics, a middle course?

Finally, two more anhemitonic (not containing any semitones) five-note scales can be derived from the seven-note Lydian parents outlined in Table 4: the Eb and Bb dominant pentatonic scales (Eb F G Bb Db and Bb C D F Ab respectively).

DbEbBbFG
AbBbFCD
Table 6. Eb (IV) and Bb (I) dominant pentatonic scales presented using the same ladder of fifths framework as in Tables 4 and 5.

To me, these sound like they have an angular quality characteristic of pentatonics on the one hand (due to their intervallic content featuring major seconds and minor thirds), as well as a tertial flavour on the other. Indeed, when reordering the pitches in ladders of thirds, we fall back on our Eb and Bb dominant chords with ninths (Eb G Bb Db F and Bb D F Ab C), the very same chords we derived from the bebop dominant scale earlier (Table 3)…

Notes

¹ Recorded with Tomoko Omura (violin), Chris Jennings (double bass), and Akiko Horii (percussion) on New Dream, an album I published in late 2024.

² The sheet music presented here is an excerpt reflecting the composition’s main groove/ostinato. Full sheet music (including individual parts for violin, piano, and bass) for “Asteroid B612” is available here at Sheet Music Plus.

³ The main idea for Asteroid probably dates back to the 1990s… In fact, the tune’s ostinato and main theme are representative of some of my earliest attempts at jazz composition!

References

Funnell, Jim. New Dream. Funnelljazz FNLJZ 4. 2024.

Russell, George. Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization – Volume One: The Art and Science of Tonal Gravity. Brookline: Concept Publishing Company, 2001.

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building on pentatonics: the major and minor blues scales

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The blues as a musical genre is characterized by an ambiguous tonality, constantly oscillating between major and minor¹. In order to render such an ambivalent quality when playing the blues, two distinct (though related) scales are commonly used: the major and the minor blues scales, which quite simply derive from the major and minor pentatonic scales respectively. In each case, a “blue” note is added to the five tones that form the basic major/minor pentatonic sounds. The major and minor blues scales can therefore be considered hexatonic scales, each being comprised of six distinct notes.

From major pentatonic to major blues scale

As presented in this short article, the major pentatonic scale is comprised of scale degrees 1 2 3 5 6. In the key of C for example, that’s C D E G A.

Reflecting the feeling of major-minor ambiguity discussed above, the blue note of choice here is indeed #2 (or, enharmonically, b3): with this addition to the basic tones of the major pentatonic scale, both the augmented second (or, enharmonically, the minor third) and the major third are included in the major blues scale. Note that the blue note creates chromaticism in the scale, dividing the whole-tone interval originally present in the pentatonic between scale degrees 2 and 3 into two semitones. Adhering to widely accepted principles of music notation, we’ll refer to this blue note as #2 in the context of an ascending melody, and as b3 in the context of a descending melody. Hence the formula:

1 2 #2 3 5 6 1 (ascending) / 1 6 5 3 b3 2 1 (descending).

In the key of C, that is:

C major blues scaleC D D# E G A C ascendingC A G E Eb D C descending

From minor pentatonic to minor blues scale

The minor pentatonic scale is comprised of scale degrees 1 b3 4 5 b7. In the key of A, that’s A C D E G. As explained in the article already mentioned above, A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic are relatives. As such, they both feature all the same notes (the only difference being their “starting point” or root: A in the former case, C in the latter).

Quite simply, each minor blues scale also happens to be the relative minor of its major counterpart, hence featuring all the same notes as the latter, but played starting a minor third below its root:

C major blues scaleC D D# E G A C ascendingC A G E Eb D C descending
A minor blues scale (A is a minor third below C)A C D D# E G A ascendingA G E Eb D C A descending

Notice that the blue note is the same tone in both scales: #2/b3 in the context of the major blues scale becomes #4/b5 in the context of the minor blues scale². So the general formula for the minor blues scale is:

1 b3 4 #4 5 b7 1 (ascending) / 1 b7 5 b5 4 b3 1 (descending).

C minor blues scaleC Eb F F# G Bb C ascendingC Bb G Gb F Eb C descending

Which scale fits what chord?

As I always tell my students: “in music, there are no hard and fast rules” (Mark Levine actually expressed the idea of musical freedom in jazz using this very wording a few decades ago in his Jazz Piano Book). Pretty much anything goes, as long as you’re honest with what you’re hearing in your mind’s ear. But the notion of infinite possibilities can be daunting… Not to worry though: that’s where the pentatonics and the blues scales step in! They’re a natural, fun, versatile way to begin your journey with improvisation, and will surely prove to be instrumental in developing your inner ear and exploring musical ideas. If you’re wondering over what chords these scales can be played, here’s a very general way of thinking about it to get you started:

  • the major pentatonic/blues scale works on dominant (C7, C7(#9)…) and major chords (C6, Cma7) built on the same root as the scale;
  • the minor pentatonic/blues scale works on dominant (C7, C7(#9)…) and minor chords (Cmi, Cmi6, Cmi7…) built on the same root as the scale;
  • the minor pentatonic/blues scale also works on dominant and minor chords built on a root located a fourth above the tonic of the scale (F7, Fmi7) or a fifth above the tonic of the scale (G7, Gmi7).

This means you can play over a whole blues using just one scale! C minor pentatonic/blues indeed sounds great over C7, F7, and G7 (degrees I, IV, and V of a C blues respectively). Play the scale against each of these chords and listen carefully: you’ll notice the different shades it takes…

Conclusion

That’s all there really is to it! A common misconception is to think that there is only one blues scale. Thinking in terms of having two distinct blues scales (which are, in fact, each other’s relatives) at one’s disposal is indeed a simpler and more fruitful approach.

As I mentioned briefly in this post’s opening paragraph, the added notes (#2/b3 in the case of the major blues scale, and #4/b5 in the case of the minor blues scale) are often called “blue notes.” There is quite some controversy in musicological circles around those so called blue notes… But I tend to agree that the ones mentioned here do indeed largely contribute to giving a bluesy feel to your basic pentatonics, and are indeed the most common. So play around with them, and you’ll see… They sound great!

Notes

¹ In “Blue Note and Blue Tonality,” William Tallmadge writes about “neutral” pitches (quarter-tones), and particularly “neutral” thirds in the context of the blues: singers and instrumentalists traditionally inflect the third in the blues scale, which as a result sounds somewhere in between the tempered minor and major thirds (hence the term “neutral”). On many instruments however (such as the piano), it is impossible to play neutral thirds (you’d have to go in between the keys!). Jazz and blues pianists have no choice but to use either minor or major thirds, or to play around with both.

² For further reading on the topics of pentatonic scales and the blues, I suggest referring to chapters 9 and 10 in Mark’s Jazz Theory Book.

References

Levine, Mark. The Jazz Piano Book. Petaluma: Sher Music Co., 1989.

Levine, Mark. “Chapter Nine: Pentatonic Scales.” In The Jazz Theory Book, 193-218. Petaluma: Sher Music Co., 1995.

Levine, Mark. “Chapter Ten: The Blues.” In The Jazz Theory Book, 219-236. Petaluma: Sher Music Co., 1995.

Tallmadge, William. “Blue Note and Blue Tonality.” The Black Perspective in Music, Autumn 1984 (pp. 155-165).

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pentatonics: the basics

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🇫🇷 → pentatoniques : les bases

Music examples for this articleDownload

The term “pentatonic” comes from the Greek language: the prefix penta-, “five,” and the word tonos, “tone,” are associated to bring forth the idea of a five-tone scale.

There are of course many five-tone scale possibilities within the twelve-tone equal temperament system. We’ll focus on the most common pentatonic scale here and call it the “global” pentatonic¹ (this particular scale is indeed encountered in the musics of many cultures around the world).

[1] The global pentatonic is based on a succession of ascending fifths: C G D A E.

[2] Reordered within the range of a single octave, we have: C D E G A.

[3] The intervals formed by the tones of this scale relative to its root (C) are as follows:

  • a major second between C and D;
  • a major third between C and E;
  • a perfect fifth between C and G;
  • a major sixth between C and A .

Since all the intervals in this scale are major (except the perfect fifth), it is often referred to as the major pentatonic. What I call the scale’s “formula,” based on Arabic numerals² representing its scale degrees (as opposed to Roman numerals commonly used to represent chords that are built on each scale degree), is: 1 2 3 5 6.

[4] Just like the diatonic seven-note major scale (C D E F G A B), the major pentatonic’s relative minor scale can be built by playing all the notes that comprise the major pentatonic, beginning on the tone located a minor third below the latter scale’s root: A C D E G.

[5] The intervals formed by the tones of this new scale relative to its root (A) are as follows:

  • a minor third between A and C;
  • a perfect fourth between A and D;
  • a perfect fifth between A and E;
  • a minor seventh between A and G.

Since all the intervals in this scale are minor (except the perfect fourth and fifth), it is often called the minor pentatonic. Its “formula” is: 1 b3 4 5 b7.

To sum up, here are the important formulas again below (accompanied by examples with the note C as the tonic in both cases, for ease of comparison):

Major pentatonic1 2 3 5 6C D E G A
Minor pentatonic1 b3 4 5 b7C Eb F G Bb

Notes

¹ This terminology is used by Michael Hewitt in his book Musical Scales of the World (see Hewitt 2013).

² More accurately speaking, these are the numerals commonly used in Europe that stem from the Hindu-Arabic numeral system.

References

Hewitt, Michael. “Section 5: Pentatonic Scales.” In Musical Scales of the World, 125-134. The Note Tree, 2013.

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5-note 2-hand voicings: example of a minor II-V resolving to Ima7

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The example above is an exercise to practice some solid sounding 5-note voicings to play over a minor II-V that resolves to a Ima7 chord (just like in the second half of the bridge to All the Things You Are¹). So buckle up and get ready to take this whole thing through the cycle of fifths in all keys! You’ll hopefully end up with a brand new, hip sounding chord or two in your jazz piano toolbox…

The first chord, F#mi7(b5), is built using what Mark Levine (1989) calls the insen pentatonic (B C E F# A – general formula: 1 b2 4 5 b7). You can construct the voicing yourself (without looking at the sheet music) by first playing an E below middle C (as the b7 of the chord, that E respects standard low interval limits), then skipping the F#, playing the A, skipping the B, playing the C, and so forth. In other words, playing every other note in the insen pentatonic scale and sounding all the notes together with both hands. As you can see from the example above, I have notated all five inversions of that chord (first ascending, and then descending all the way back to the inversion chosen initially). I find it very beneficial to practice in that fashion in order to create a “sheet of sound” effect, like McCoy Tyner comping for John Coltrane! Having all five versions of the chord under your belt will also enable you to voice lead as smoothly as possible in any situation, taking into account where you’re coming from and where you’re going harmonically. Lastly, if the tune you’re playing calls for dwelling on a certain chord for a somewhat prolonged amount of time (a few bars), there lies a perfect opportunity for you to explore some of those inversions for the sake of variation…

The second chord is a B7 to which we have added a b9, a #9, and a b13. These tensions form a C2 triad (C D G) which when inverted gives us either two perfect fourths stacked on top of each other (D G C), a Gsus triad (G C D), or a C2 triad (C D G)². Therefore we have an upper structure triad chord (UST) voiced with the aforementioned triad on top (played by the right hand) and the guide tones in the bottom (played by the left hand). To be musically consistent with the phrasing used for F#mi7(b5), I have included several “inversions” here too (to be precise, combinations of inversions of the top triad in the right hand with inversions of the guide tones in the left hand). Taken together, the five notes that make up the UST voicings used to voice this B7 chord also form an insen pentatonic (1 b2 4 5 b7), the tonic of which would be D (D Eb G A C).

The final chord, to which this progression resolves, is Ema7 (with thensions 9 and 13). The building process here is the exact same as for F#mi7(b5) (with the playing and skipping of every other tone in the scale), except that this time, a “regular”³ anhemitonic (containing no semitones) pentatonic is used (B C# D# F# G#). Do you notice how each individual voice outlines the pentatonic scale melodically? This also happened for the first chord of the progression, F#mi7(b5), which we also voiced using the play-and-skip-a-tone method applied to the insen pentatonic. On the contrary, playing through the different inversions of the B7 chord, voiced as an upper structure triad over its guide tones, is more choppy (with wider melodic intervals from one voicing to the next).

So there you have it: three solid sounding, 2-hand voicings for your minor II-V resolving to a major I chord. I hope you’ll enjoy practicing this snippet, and that it will prove to be a valuable addition to your harmonic vocabulary!

Notes

¹ Click here for a transcription (example #2) of guitarist Remo Palmieri soloing over the bridge of All the Things You Are (Gillespie 1993).

² Click here to see these quartal triads (2 and suspended) in root position and their inversions notated in treble clef.

³ In order to differentiate this particular pentatonic scale from other kinds of 5-note scales (such as the insen pentatonic mentioned earlier), I usually refer to it as “global.” After all, it “has been found in use upon every single continent of the planet Earth.” (Hewitt 2013)

References

Gillespie, Dizzy. Groovin’ High. Savoy 152. 1993 (originally released in 1955).

Hewitt, Michael. “Section 5: Pentatonic Scales.” In Musical Scales of the World, 125-134. The Note Tree, 2013.

Levine, Mark. “Chapter 15: Pentatonic Scales.” In The Jazz Piano Book, 219-237. Petaluma: Sher Music Company, 1989.

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breaking up the Dorian mode into two pentatonic scales

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Sheet music for Igneous Alloy (from the album Spirit of the Snail), the tune used as an example in this video, is now available on SMP Press:

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finding 5-note 2-hand voicings for half-diminished locrian chords

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While focusing on a section of AfuriKo’s recent arrangement of “Kassai” during practice yesterday, I came across a mi7(b5) chord that calls for the locrian chord scale. Remembering Frank Mantooth’s approach in his Voicings for Jazz Keyboard inspired me to research possible 5-note 2-hand voicings for this chord.

So let’s quickly jot down a major scale and list all possible Quartal (Q), Generic Dominant (GD), and So What (SW) voicings that can be built under each scale degree (top note):

major harmony voicing types screen shot 1

The results are summarized in the table below:

voicing type top note
Quartal 1, 4, 5
Generic Dominant 2, 5
So What 3, 6, 7

The next step is to find suitable candidates to aurally represent our half-diminished locrian chord! It feels natural to go with those that:

  • sound best individually when trying them out against the root (C in the key of Db major) in the low register of the keyboard;
  • sound best in the context of a minor II-V-I.

You’ll notice that most of the eligible voicings include all three guide tones (namely b3, b5, and b7), which seems coherent since these notes characterize the mi7(b5) sound. One of the voicings, however, features b3 and b7 only (no b5), but still sounds strong as a mi7(b5) chord (to my ears…) so I went ahead and included it here, too.

1) The Generic Dominant voicing built underneath scale degree 2 has all four chord tones (C, Eb, Gb, Bb) and the 11th (F). Here it is notated below followed by its four inversions:

major harmony voicing types screen shot 4

Two of these inversions contain the interval of a b9. They sound dissonant and not quite appropriate for a mi7(b5) chord, so let’s go ahead and rule them out. We are left with the following three solid-sounding voicings for Cmi7(b5). From the top note down:

  • Eb Bb F C Gb
  • F C Gb Eb Bb
  • Bb F C Gb Eb

Incidentally (or not!), these notes make up the F insen pentatonic (F Gb Bb C Eb), which reveals itself as a very interesting scale to solo over Cmi7(b5).

2) The So What voicing built underneath scale degree 3 is slightly more adventurous, containing only two of the guide tones (Bb and Eb) and three tensions: the b9th (Db), the 11th (F), and the b13th (Ab). Its inversions don’t seem to function so well (again, these perceptions are of course subjective and there are no hard and fast rules…) as a mi7(b5) chord so let’s just keep the following chord, from the top note down:

  • F Db Ab Eb Bb

Now, it turns out this particular set of notes corresponds to the Db major/Bb minor pentatonic, which is thus also a valid choice to solo over Cmi7(b5).

3) The Generic Dominant voicing built under scale degree 5 contains all four chord tones (C, Eb, Gb, Bb), as well as the b13th (Ab). Here it goes with its inversion:

major harmony voicing types screen shot 6

Two of the those voicings (labeled Ab7 above) have a very distinct dominant color, but we can definitely use the other three as strong sounding half-diminished locrian chords. Spelling them from top to bottom, we have:

  • Ab Eb Bb Gb C
  • C Ab Eb Bb Gb
  • Gb C Ab Eb Bb

These notes (Ab Bb C Eb Gb) constitute the Ab dominant pentatonic scale.

4) The Quartal voicing built under scale degree 4 and the So What voicing built under scale degree 6 are in fact inversions of each other:

major harmony voicing types screen shot 5

Although the Db here creates the interval of a b9 with the underlying root (C), it is OK to go ahead and list all inversions for this chord as possible mi7(b5) voicings because b2 is a characteristic note of the locrian mode. From the top note down, we have the following five additional possibilities for Cmi7(b5):

  • Gb Db Ab Eb Bb
  • Ab Eb Bb Gb Db
  • Bb Gb Db Ab Eb
  • Db Ab Eb Bb Gb
  • Eb Bb Gb Db Ab

This last set of notes uncovers the Gb major/Eb minor pentatonic, yet another option to solo over Cmi7(b5).

To sum up, here are all twelve previously found half-diminished locrian voicings:

major harmony voicing types screen shot 8

And finally, let’s put them back in context! I have chosen minor II-V-Is with either V7(b9) or V7alt as the dominant chord:

major harmony voicing types screen shot 7

ADDENDUM

29 Oct. 2019

The in pentatonic scale (E F A B D) is also contained within the major scale and can also be used effectively to derive 5-note 2-hand voicings for half-diminished locrian chords (Bmi7(b5) in this case). The way to do it is to play the first scale degree (E), skip the second scale degree (F), play the third scale degree (A), skip the fourth scale degree (B), etc… until you’re playing all five notes simultaneously, divided between both hands. You will end up with the voicing E A D F B, and its inversions (F B E A D, A D F B E, B E A D F, and D F B E A). Some of these include the interval of a b9 within the voicing (between the notes E and F) but this doesn’t matter (in my opinion and experience) as the flatted second scale degree is a characteristic note of the locrian mode.

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pentatonic possibilities 1: major and minor pentatonics

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Pentatonics are 5-note scales. Technically, any ordered sequence of 5 notes can be called a pentatonic. But the most common and widely used pentatonic is without doubt the one obtained by reordering a series of 5 notes stacked on top of each other in fifths (for example, the series “C G D A E” gives us “C D E G A” once reordered). This particular pentatonic comes in its “major” form (C D E G A), and its relative “minor” form (A C D E G).

So, what do I mean by “pentatonic possibilities?” Well, pentatonics tend to break up the diatonic quality of 7-note major and minor scales because of their intervallic content. So, to create fresh melodic shapes and give a more edgy feel to your lines while improvising over changes, you might ask yourself: what pentatonic scales can I use over these chords? Chords derive from modes, and modes from harmony types, so the question may be rephrased as: what pentatonic scales can be extracted from the various harmony types?

For the purpose of this particular post, I will limit myself to what I call the “common” or “global” pentatonic scale (the one discussed in the first paragraph). Let’s have a look at major harmony first. The pentatonics listed in the first and last column of the table shown below are extracted from the key of C major (C D E F G A B). Their “major” forms are listed in the left-hand side of the table along with their relative “minor” forms on the right-hand side, and the roman numerals represent the scale degrees for each pentatonic:

major harmony pentatonic possibilities
C D E G A I Maj. pent. <=> VI min. pent. A C D E G
F G A C D IV Maj. pent. <=> II min. pent. D F G A C
G A B D E V Maj. pent. <=> III min. pent. E G A B D

Natural minor harmony is equivalent to the Aeolian mode. Therefore, the pentatonic possibilities in natural minor are the same as in major harmony (the roman numerals indicating the scale degrees, however, would have to change due to the shift to relative minor).

Now, let’s have a look at melodic minor harmony. It turns out only one pentatonic scale can be extracted from this harmony type. It is shown in the table below in the key of C melodic minor (C D Eb F G A B):

melodic minor harmony pentatonic possibilities
F G A C D IV Maj. pent. <=> II min. pent. D F G A C

Finally, neither harmonic minor nor harmonic major harmony bear common pentatonic possibilities, due to a flatted 6th scale degree in both instances. However, some interesting “exotic” pentatonics can be derived from those harmony types…

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altered sound harmonic/melodic ideas

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What are a few things that can be done when an altered dominant chord presents itself in a tune? The first notion to be aware of is that the altered chord derives from the altered mode, otherwise known as mode VII of melodic minor. Below are a few tricks to break out of the diatonic sound of the scale (i.e. by introducing intervallic leaps in addition to the stepwise motion inherent to seven-note scales), and gain a little freedom with it. We will use Eb7alt as an example throughout this post.

First, let’s have a look at 5 different triads that can be played in the context of upper structure triad voicings (USTs) for an altered chord. We’ll use these triads as “numerators” of the UST voicings, the “denominator” always being the basic chord sound (i.e. chord tones 1, 3, and b7 sounded together):

  • I°
  • bIImi
  • bIIImi
  • bV
  • bVI

Both minor triads on the one hand, or both major triads on the other hand, can be combined to form two distinct hexatonic scales, which can in turn be used as interesting melodic devices to play lines over the altered chord:

  • Hexatonic 1 = bIImi + bIIImi
  • Hexatonic 2 = bV + bVI

Granted, these two hexatonics are only slightly different. Let’s put them under the microscope:

Hex. 1Emi + F#miE F# G A B C#
Hex. 2A + BA B C# D# E F#

The only difference between the two scales is that hexatonic 1 has a G (and no D#), while, conversely, hexatonic 2 has a D# (and no G). From an additive point of view (when both hexatonics are combined), we fall back onto the full, seven-note altered mode (D# E F# G A B C# D#) derived from melodic minor (E F# G A B C# D# E). But looking at the two hexatonics from a subtractive viewpoint (taking the G and the D# out of the scales), then the fact that we are left with the same five notes (E F# A B C#) becomes apparent. These notes make up a pentatonic scale (bIII minor pentatonic/bV major pentatonic relative to the degrees of the altered mode), which can also be used as an even more angular melodic device, in the sense that it is more salient than the hexatonics from an intervallic perspective: