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Melodic Minor Mode

"I use modal and extended harmony in my music in order to give it more depth, variety and excitement. Unfortunately, a lot of these modes can be difficult to learn, and can come off as dry without interesting music to tie them to. Below is a link to an Acrobat PDF file of a melodic minor "mode map" in F#. There are also links to a loop of the intro of Graffiti Cemetery to practice to, and I have played an example of arpeggios, chords and soloing using this scale.

To better memorize this mode, I mapped it against an F# minor6 pentatonic grid. Using the pentatonic scale rather than the full melodic minor scale allows you to play in a much more bluesy and rocked out manner over this jazz mode. You can experiment with using all seven notes of the melodic minor scale, or just the five of the pentatonic minor6.

There are also other pentatonic scales that you can use with melodic minor:
minor 6/9 - 1,2,b3,5,6
1,2,b3,5,maj7
b3,4,5,6,maj7 (this has a whole tone or augmented sound) and
2,b3,5,6,maj7. I chose the minor 6 pentatonic as it is the easiest.

Also, once you learn melodic minor, the seventh mode will be Altered Dominant (also called Super Locrian). You can use this for an altered turn-around for a Blues."

Theoretical exercises on F# minor/Major 7, melodic minor mode:

Download PDF file of F# Melodic Minor "Mode Map"

MP3 of Graffiti Cemetery Intro Loop to jam over

Examples:

MP3 of Graffiti Cemetery Intro with arpeggios

MP3 of Graffiti Cemetery Intro with chords

Fuze solos over Minor 6 Pentatonic (6 bars) Melodic Minor (6 bars)

David Fiuczynski has been instructing students in guitar and compostion techniques since 1989. He is currently a full-time associate professor at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. and teaches privately in Boston and New York, as well as giving lessons via the internet. To contact David regarding his teaching, please use our Contact Page.

Fuze has also worked as a private instructor at The New School Jazz Program in New York City, has been a touring clinician for Ibanez Guitars, and has given clinics and master classes all over the world, including at Berklee College of Music, Boston, MA; Cal Arts in Pasadena, CA; New School/Mannes in New York City, NY; Burlington Music Conference, Burlington,VT; National Guitar Workshop, New Milford, CT; New England Conservatory, Boston, MA; University of N.Texas,TX; and in The Netherlands, Switerland, France, Spain, Italy and Mexico.

In addition to an exceptional professional performance, theoretical, compositional and conceptual background, David’s teaching emphasizes composition, melodic development, developing musical identity and expanding creativity. He teaches a variety of improvisational methods that can be utilized to play over changes, using simple pentatonic modes to very advanced modal harmony. This can greatly increase the impact of a student’s writing and soloing, and helps to develop an individual musical voice.

David also has a number of special interests that he utilizes in his teaching. He is extremely involved with using modern rhythms, and his ensemble teaching utilizes current popular drum grooves as well as more traditional styles. David is also immersed in the sounds of other cultures: Asian, Indian, Arabic, African and Eastern European musics. While he has a deep knowledge of the standard rock,
fusion, funk and blues canon, his unique combinations of these styles are challenging, exciting and useful for students in the modern music business.

For more information regarding David's current and past musical projects, please visit his biography page.