Improvising Over Minor 251s
Welcome to the 3rd lesson in this course. In this lesson we are going to explore the minor 25, and how to use our chosen melody over 25s in the song “There Will Never Be Another You” as well as any minor 25 progression.
Again it’s important that you can play all 12 minor 251 progressions. If you do not know these progressions, you will not be able to get the most out of the teachings in this course.
Let’s Take A Look Into The Minor 25.
We know that every major key has a relative minor key which contains the exact same notes, but starts and ends and a different note. If we’re in the key of C-, that would mean that we are in the key of Eb major, as it is the relative major.
As we mentioned earlier, all the modes are the same with just a different bass note, so let’s take a more careful look into the D–7 b5 chord.
A Closer Inspection Of The Minor7b5 Chord.
Be careful with the word “half diminished” because even if this chord has a relation to diminished (as pretty much everything has!), it can be misleading. Of course, it’s not wrong to use the name, but in this lesson, we will explore in detail the construction of this chord type to simplify our approach to improvisation.
2 Ways To Use Our Chosen Melody!
We now have 2 ways to use our chosen melody and we can apply it to both major and minor 251s. With this approach to improvisation, we can already get twice as much mileage from our transcribed melodies.
In lesson 2 of this course, we separated the major key from minor key, which actually is unnecessary as all these goals are exactly the same in both relative major and minor; The 1 in major becomes b3 in minor etc.
Once you understand the theoretical application of this lesson, we are ready to take the next step and get more material out of our melodies.
Related Lessons
In this lesson we are going to look at some alternative ways to voice minor 251s with our left hand. We introduce the -11b5 chord and its inversions.
We have voiced minor 251 progressions with our left hand and so now it’s time to spread the notes across 2 hands to get bigger chords with more impact!
Minor harmony is much more complex than major harmony and so the minor 251 progression takes much more time and patience to master.
Practice Tips
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Ensure that you are comfortable with the 251s in all 12 minor keys.
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If you are not familiar with these progressions, check out the related lessons above and download the PDF lesson supplements if necessary.
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Play the melody over every minor 251 progression. Listen to how the exact same melody is perfectly suited to both major and minor 251 progressions.
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Following the examples in this lesson, find different ways to resolve the melody into the 1 Chord of the Minor 251.
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Apply this new material over the tune "There Will Never Be Another You" and play all of the major 251s as minor 251s for this exercise.
Hi! It should be better ti have all the transcription of this kind of lessons. With notes on pentagram and not just a couple of chords. Anyway I’d lire to read also the freely played part like introductions, maybe with comments. Is it possible? This site deserve it! 😜
It seems that in exercises you play minor chords with normal base note and dominants as rootless. Do you do this for these exercises only or do you do this routinely? Is this mix for for improv only or do you apply it to regular tunes? Please clarify. Thanks