So what's going on with dominant 7 harmonies?
We've looked at major chords and minor chords and now, let's look at these
dominant 7 situations. It starts off being very similar to the
major harmonies, in that it's the 4th of the scale that we're interested in.
In the case of the [MUSIC] the Mixolydian scale, it is a natural 4.
And with a raised 4 [MUSIC] it's called a Lydian flat 7.
These are the scales we looked at last week.
So that may be all you need to. Determine when you look at your piece of
music that it's maybe obvious that it's either the mixo or the lydian flat seven.
Just depending on whether it's a natural four or a raised four.
In addition, we also need to ask a question on dominant seven chords which
is. Are there any altered notes?
Now remember last week we talked about the altered scale including the flat 9,
the sharp 9, the sharp 11, and the flat 13.
Those are altered notes. And if you see altered notes in your
melody on your dominant 7 chord, or they are indicated by the, the preceding
harmony. Then that moves your dominant 7 chord
into the world of the altered let's say, and it's going to take one of the altered
scales in order to to be the right choice.
So there are two if you remember from last week that are closely related.
I call them cousins, there's the [MUSIC] altered scale, and there's the
symmetrical diminished. The bottom half of the scale is the same
for both altered and symmetrical diminished, and the only difference being
that instead of a flat 13 [MUSIC] on the altered, it's the natural six on the, on
the symmetrical diminished. So now let's look at some examples.
Here's, first an example where there's, clearly an F sharp in the melody of this
C7 and it, that tells us it's going to be a Lydian flat seven.
That also, I don't don't see any altered notes either.
So, Lydian flat 7 is the right chord scale for this first example.
Now, we see an example that calls for the altered scale.
We see, [MUSIC]. We see altered notes in the scale.
In the melody. And that's the, [MUSIC] the logical
scale. Now I'll give you a second example and
just remind you of something that we covered last week.
You'll notice in the second example there is a natural five in this altered scale.
Remember this is the hidden note, secret note, that's in the altered scale.
It's not officially there, but it works. It doesn't clash with the scale at all
and it occurs a lot in melodies on altered harmonies.
So don't let it throw you off. If you see a natural five, don't jump to
the conclusion and say, well, it can't be altered because it's not in that scale.
It is. Think of it as being part of the altered
scale. And in this example we're looking at now,
you'll see there's a G natural in the melody but it's still got altered notes.
It is an altered scale that's being called for.
Finally, here's an example that calls for the symmetrical diminished scale.
In this case, there's an A natural. Called for in the melody [MUSIC].