How can we make scales more musical?

#1: Vary Your Rhythms

Start on Upbeats:

Switch to Triplets:

Mix 8th Notes and Triplets:

Invent Freer or Looser Melodic Rhythms:

#2: Add Accents and Other Articulations

#3: Shape Scales with Dynamics

#4: Add Octave Displacements
Here is a table of melodic minor modes in the key of C melodic minor.

Mode Scale “Correct” Also Known Chord Related

Position Spelling Mode Name As Symbol Major Mode

C melodic
minor:
“Parent” C D Eb F G Dorian natural “Melodic
C- (maj. 7) Dorian
scale/mode ABC 7 minor”
or “root
mode”

D7 sus4 b9
C melodic or
D Eb F G A Phrygian
minor played “Dorian flat 2”
BCD natural 6 Phrygian
from D
D-7 (b2)

Eb aug.
maj. 7
C melodic (#11) or
Eb F G A B “Lydian
minor played Lydian sharp 5 Lydian
C D Eb augmented” Eb maj. 7
from Eb
(#5, #11)

C melodic
FGABCD Mixolydian “Lydian
minor played F7 (#11) Mixolydian
Eb F sharp 4 dominant”
from F
G7 sus4
C melodic (b13) or
GABCD Aeolian “Mixolydian
minor played Aeolian
Eb F G natural 3 flat 6” G7 (b13)
from G

A half dim.
C melodic “Minor 7 flat 7 (nat. 9)
A B C D Eb Locrian natural or
minor played 5” or “Aeolian Locrian
FGA 2
from A flat 5” A-7 (b5)

“Altered scale” B7 (alt.) or Ionian

C melodic or “Super B7 (b9, #9, (“root” mode
B C D Eb F
minor played Ionian sharp 1 Locrian” or or “parent
GAB
from B “Diminished #11, b13) scale” of
whole-tone” major)
1. Use this lick over the C-(maj.7) chord in bar 1 of Solar.

2. Transpose this lick down a whole step to the key of Bb melodic minor and play it over the first 8
bars of Caravan (for the best results, the chordal instruments should treat the first chord of
Caravan as a C7sus4(b9) while you use Bb melodic minor in this context).

3. Transpose this lick up a perfect 4th to the key of F melodic minor and use it over the
Abmaj.7(#5,#11) chord in the 2nd to last bar of Dolphin Dance.

4. Transpose this lick up a minor 3rd to Eb melodic minor and use it over the Ab7(#11) chord in
bars 5-6 of the bridge (bars 21-22 overall) of Stella by Starlight.

5. Use this lick over the G7(b13) chord on the first two bars of the bridge of (bars 17-18 overall) of
Stella by Starlight.

6. Use this lick over the A-7(b5) chord in bar 21 of I Love You.

7. Use this lick over any B7(alt.) chord, for example in bar 2 of the bridge (bar 18 overall) of My
One and Only Love.
Starting With No Chromaticism

Adding Chromaticism
STELLA BY STARLIGHT - ABCA
Improvising Over “Stella”

Approach # 1: Using Guide-tones

Approach # 2: Maximizing Melodic Minor Scales

1) On “tonic” I minor chords or static minor chords.When a minor chord isn’t the II- chord in a
II-V-I, you can probably use the tonic melodic minor scale. One opportunity to use a tonic melodic
minor scale in Stella occurs in bars 19-20 where you can play C melodic minor over the C-7 chord
since it’s a relatively static chord that isn’t part of a II-V-I. You can also use a tonic I melodic
minor in bars 11 and 19-20. Note that the melodic minor scale doesn’t work as effectively over the
II- chord in a II-V-I because you end up with the wrong type of 7th. For a II-V-I you want the flatted
7th for better voice leading.

2) On II-7(b5) chords.

II-7(b5) chords and II(half diminished 7) chords can be approached using the 6th mode of melodic
minor. For example, for E-7(b5) you can play G melodic minor (E is the 6th scale degree of G
melodic minor). II-7(b5) chords which are candidates for this use of the melodic minor scale appear
in measures 1, 10, 14, 15, 25, 27, and 29 of Stella.

3) On V7(alt.) chords.

The iconic “altered” scale is the seventh mode of melodic minor – for example Bb melodic minor
played starting from A over A7(b9, b13) – which appears in bars 2, 10, 14, 26 of Stella. V7 and
especially V7(b9) chords [or any V7’s with alterations other than the V7(natural 13)] are candidates
for the altered scale, and in Stella these happen all over the place: in measures 2, 10, 14, 16, 17-18,
26, 28, and 30.

4) On dominant 7th chords

Especially dominant 7th (#11) chords – which often don’t resolve up a 4th or down a 5th, which is
what they would do if they were part of a V-I progression. The scale to use in this case is the
4th mode of melodic minor, meaning if C melodic minor is your root, F7(#11) is the dominant
7th chord over which you can play C melodic minor starting from F (F is the 4 th scale degree of C).
The obvious spots to use the melodic minor scale over a dominant 7 (#11) in Stella are over the F7
in bar 4 (use C melodic minor from F here) and over the Ab7(#11) chord in measure 21-22 (the
melodic minor scale you’d use here is Eb melodic minor).
Approach # 3: Using Triad Pairs