You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - 7 Options for a Dominant 7th Chord

Episode Date: July 11, 2019

In today's episode, Peter and Adam break out the Keystation to show some scales and subsitutions to play over a dominant chord.And check out The Jazz Glossary for more lessons on jazz chords, scales, and terms: https://www.openstudionetwork.com/project/glo-overview/ (And yes, this course will also be moved over to our new site https://www.openstudiojazz.com very soon!)7 Options for a Dominant 7th Chord:MixolydianLydian dominantHalf-wholeAlteredSus7Tritone subHalf-step belowBONUSWe have been nominated in the Music category of The People's Choice Podcast Awards! To submit, please sign up to vote for us in the Music Category here: https://www.podcastawards.com/Let us know what you think by leaving a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, or head over to our YouTube channel and leave a comment for this episode.Interested in more jazz advice? Go here to browse our catalog of jazz lessons and courses available for purchase.Follow us on Facebook, Twitter & Instagram at:https://www.facebook.com/heyopenstudiohttps://twitter.com/heyopenstudiohttps://www.instagram.com/heyopenstudio See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hey, Adam. What's up? You still hot up in her? Now that we have headphones on, I'm even hotter. Wow, it's funny because yesterday it was hot and still is. It's going to get hotter and hotter, man. I'm Adam Manus. And I'm Peter Martin.

You're listening to The You'll Hear a podcast. Daily Jazz Advice coming at you. Sizzling at you today in our hot-ass podcast in our broken AC studios. I don't like to start out the show like this usually, but it is hot AF. Let's just be honest about it. No, I mean, we were trying to bundle some episodes here because you're leaving. for a tour tomorrow. Yeah.

And it just so happens that the last few days and maybe the next few days, our AC is out here in our beautiful studio. Yep. Being fixed. We're waiting for a part, apparently. Yeah. But in the meantime, we're all, like, it's 90 degrees in here, and it's muggy as heck. And for our international listeners that have actually gotten onto the metric system,

unlike the U.S., it is, I don't know. It doesn't say. But I think in 90s, like, 40 or something, it's, yeah, it's up there. It's up there. Hey, before we get going, though, just a reminder that this podcast is brought to you by Open Studio. Go to Open StudioJadjazz.com to check out our brand new lightning fast platform with a bunch of new features. We have a bunch of courses already up. Moore is on the way.

Yeah. Go to, again, Open StudioJazz. Very exciting. Very exciting. Oh, I'm sorry. It's 32. Oh, I kind of got ahead of myself. 40 would be like Oman in the Middle East.

Yeah, exactly. Anything in the 30s is really ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah, 40 is actually 104. It's not that bad. But we're going to be there soon. Maybe tomorrow. Okay, so today we're talking seven options for a dominant seventh chord.

And I thought we could do maybe kind of a, for our beginner intermediate listeners, really give you the options. And I'm not talking about, really, I'm really not talking about using a dominant seventh chord like you would on a blues as a one chord. But we really want to give you options to build some tension as you go to a one chord, right? So as you use the dominant chord as a five chord or, you know, a flat two chord or whatever you use. I don't give it away. We'll get there. We'll get there.

So you're talking about, now we're talking about function. Are we talking about scales? Are we talking about all of it? I don't know what's going on here. We're talking about, so I have a list here. Okay. So really just different ways, different scales you can use over the dominant seventh

chord, different substitutions. Yeah. Okay. Let's do it. The first one we have is the most obvious. This is the mixolydian. This is the diatonic. That's a classic.

If we're hearing the key of F, and we have C-7 going to F. Yeah. You know, every note in that. C. Mixillidian scale is an F. So you really just stay on an F major scale for both. It is the most boring. It is the first one we learn.

But it is the most, I think, in my opinion, can be the most challenging to make sound good. To really imply that there's movement from a five to a one. Take some skill. I mean, yeah, and I'm thinking about like,

you know, some really beautiful melodic or rhythmic things that you could do interesting. For sure. Beautiful melodies, interesting rhythms. Because, you know, rhythm, melody, harmony, those three basic building blocks, it's good to put a little thought into when it is kind of ordinary. And there's not a lot of tension built in.

I mean, there is from the five to the one, but we're talking about the same notes into the scale. Something has to give us that interest in drama. So just think about the other elements sometimes if you aren't going to have a lot, a whole lot built in. Yeah. I mean, for me, I love using the 13th and the 9th in those situations. Yeah.

Right? So it's C7. you know, leaning on that A, or the D. You hear that one all the time. Yeah, still pretty, you know, standard. For sure. Good. So the next sort of next level is the Lydian dominant.

Yeah. Pretty much the same scale, except we have that sharp 11 sound. Hence the Lidian. Also kind of tricky to really make sound great. Especially on the key station. Especially on everything is tricky to make sound great. You know, the thing with the Lidian dominant, though, is once you get to some of these other ones that are down the list

you kind of sleep on the Lydian dominant I like it I do too man I like some of the the shapes that you can get out of there's some nice triads what was that was that F7 you were just doing C7 C7 so you definitely got the D triad the different inversions there that that gives you but also the

like a D triad but also a D augmented triad yeah and all those things kind of give attention and have nice resolution points and sort of leading tones into that major. Agreed. Yeah. So don't sleep on the Lydian. And if you're more advanced

player and you don't use it, because you're using other more advanced stuff. Because you're so hip. Go check it out again. Yeah. And another part of the That's a part of the Lidian diamond, isn't it? I'm sorry, I went to another. You went to the next one, which is a half hole. No, no, but this is Lidian. Oh, that is?

Yeah, yeah. Sorry, I was in the wrong key. Yeah. So that's for C7, B flat, D. F sharp, and A. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great sound. So number three is the half-hole scale, starting on C again.

Just half-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, half-step, half-step, whole-step. Octatonic eight-note scale. Also known as the half-hole diminished, how I learned it. There's a million shapes for this one. Yep. Yeah, a lot of tension built in there, a lot of alterations. but I think the fact that this has the 13 still is what sort of sets it apart

from the other like tension heavy dominant scales for this one I don't really use it going to a minor chord because of that 13 it sounds fine but yeah it's a very particular peculiar sound to me it just sounds major then the next one though is something I would use going towards a minor and that's the altered scale

because it has so again it's already got that it's in the melodic minor family seventh degree. Yeah. So in C, D, flat, E, natural, G flat, A flat, B flat.

So it has that A flat. So it sounds great. Yep. Yep. And so that, what was that? That was the altered. That was number four. So the altered scale sounds great going to the minor. The half, whole, diminished scale sounds great going towards the major.

Something that I think sounds great going towards everything is the suss. Oh, you love you some stuff. really just a mix of Lydian. But it's all in that voicing. And really, you can kind of lean on different things. It doesn't mean you don't play the third. The major third is in there.

It is in there, but it's like almost a different functional place, right? Yeah, the major third then becomes a source of tension. Right. Right. And you're playing with that fourth to third within the dominant. Totally. Look, you got so happy. You forgot how, look at it.

You forgot it's 90 degrees up in here, man. I could just go, yeah, I could go seven to one all the long. If only you guys could see. Oh, maybe they can't, but only you could see Happy we're going to call it suspended happy. It's like you're in the Willie Wonka. Remember the part where they flowed up and it's like happy little childlike at him.

Oh, come on now. Come on. Yeah. All right. So our next one is the classic tritone sub. Oh, come on. Overdone and yet underdone. Instead of C-7, you can go...

It's like a bad steak. To a G-flat 7. Yeah. You can literally substitute that C-7. So if you're on a 2-5 and F, G-minor 7, You can use mixolydian. You know, a lot of folks might use like a G-flat-Lidian dominant, which is really just the altered scale.

Mix-a-Lidium. What are you talking about my Lidion? Oh, sorry. That's the classic substitution. One we talk about quite a bit, though, is the half-step below the destination substitution. So if I'm on a G-minor 7, this is my 2. Instead of C-7, I might play E.

Yeah, I like that. And for that, you know, a half-hole. works, maybe even like the altered. I like a suss sound on that. Oh, yeah. Nice. A lot of nice options there. That one's good. I kind of played a lot and don't even think about it. But then when we talk about it, it's fun. I know you do. That's who I stole it

from. So check that out. Do we have a bonus one today? Come up, Ian, what do you got? You got to have some kind of bonus. While you're thinking of a bonus substitution you could do on a dominant seventh chord, I just want to tell everybody about the glossary. What do you guys know about the glossary? What do you guys know about the The glossary. The glossary. Well, I wanted to tell them about the glossary because that's kind of your baby. Are you telling about the glossary? I'll think of a bonus one.

I mean, the thing, so we have so much great stuff at Open Studio and we want you to come visit us at our new home. Same great open studio, but we're at Open Studio jazz.com. New sites, fast, great navigation, clean, easy to check out, easy to check in, all that kind of good stuff. But we have a nice little thing that a bunch of our members have been kind of picking up and that's called the Jazz Glossary, which you add and worked on with some of our other staff. here and it is just a like a very basic kind of primer for well it's exactly what it says it's a glossary it's like so like if you're intimidated by terms or whatever um adam lovingly and gently guide you through the you know scales and and intervals very similar to what we're doing today very similar what we're doing but better yeah and it's one of our lowest price courses it might even be our lowest i don't know what it is but it's very affordable so it could be a nice little

gateway especially if you're on the beginner side if you're advanced it might be a little basic maybe? There are 45 second videos on just this kind of thing. What's a Mixalidian? What's an altered? What's a half-hole scale? And you can see them. There's great notation with it. So check it out. It's a great addition. So my bonus for seven options for the dominant

seventh chord is, I think it's a fridgin sound. I'm not that sure. But it's this, you're not even having headphones on it. How are you going to hear? It's got so hot. Cat took his headphones up. This sound. Yeah, it's fridgin. Yeah. Frigian, right? Yep.

So that's... It's like a D-flat major 7-sharp 11 over C. Yeah, that's not the way of it's. Super tense. That's what I use at the beginning of Caravan, because I think that's kind of what it is. I mean, I know it's diminished, but it's really like over C

if you're playing the regular key. But when you're in a part of your solo where you really want to build some tension... Yeah. Oh, yeah. The Fridgeian? Is it Phrygian? Frigian.

I know why you thought about that because you wish you were in a refrigerator. A refrigerinator. Anyway. Well, until tomorrow, you'll hear it.