One of the most common ways to expand your soloing ideas over maj7 chords is to explore the Lydian sound, which produces a maj7#11 chord.
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While learning the Lydian scale itself is definitely one
One of the most common ways to expand your soloing ideas over maj7 chords is to explore the Lydian sound, which produces a maj7#11 chord.
While learning the Lydian scale itself is definitely one way to go when adding a maj7#11 sound to your solos, there’s another common and cool-sounding concept you can explore to bring this sound out in your lines.
In today’s lesson, we’ll be looking at how you can apply a major pentatonic scale a tone above any maj7 chord to bring out a Lydian vibe in your jazz guitar solos.
The Lydian Pentatonic Concept
Though it has a big name, the Lydian Pentatonic Concept is a rather easy way to bring out a cool, new sound in your jazz guitar soloing lines and licks. To break it down to its smallest form, the concept is as such: “Playing a major pentatonic scale a tone above the root of any maj7 chord produces a Lydian sound in your solos.”
Here’s how that concept looks with a Cmaj7 chord and D scale. When played over a Dmaj7 chord, the D major pentatonic scale produces the intervals: R-2-3-5-6 But, when you play this same scale, D major pentatonic, over a Cmaj7 chord, you produce a Lydian sound in your lines. 9-3-#11-6-7 As you can see, by playing a major pentatonic scale a tone higher than the maj7 chord you are soloing over, you are outlining a maj7#11 sound in your lines. This is a great way to bring out the Lydian sound in your solo, but not just run up and down the normal 7-note Lydian mode in your lines and phrases.
Lydian Pentatonic Concept Application
Now that you know what the Lydian Pentatonic Concept is, let’s look at how the D major