Jazz Guitar Corner: Building a Jazz Vocabulary — Melodic Minor Over iim7

When studying jazz guitar, we often begin by exploring the Dorian mode when soloing over m7 chords.

But, while that is a great first-choice scale, we often stop there in our exploration of m7 chord vocabulary. One of the mostly widely used scales besides Dorian to solo over m7 chords is the melodic minor scale, which is built like a Dorian but with a natural rather than a b7 note. When that raised 7th, a C# over Dm7, for example, is heard, it creates a sense of tension that is then released throughout the line, which is a big key in creating the jazz-guitar sound, tension and release.

In today’s lesson, we’ll look at three licks that use melodic minor over a iim7 chord. We'll also explore ways you can practice this scale over m7 chords in your jazz-guitar practice routine.

Melodic Minor Scale iim7 Lick 1: The first example we’ll look at in terms of using melodic minor over a iim7 chord features a classic pattern over the first bar of this ii V I phrase. Here, you are starting on the 9th of Dm7, going up and then back down until you reach the major 7th interval, C#, which then leads you into a descending DmMaj7 arpeggio. The rest of the lick is pretty straight-forward, with a bit of chromaticism over the G7 chord for good measure.

Melodic Minor Scale iim7 Lick 2: In this second lick, you can see the same pattern as Lick 1, but this time raised an octave over the Dm7 chord. Since this pattern is used a lot in the jazz-guitar vocabulary, and in multiple position/octaves on the guitar, it’s worth looking at in both octaves during today’s lesson.

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