Musicians: If you see this chord, what scale do you use?

[The Chameleon]

Just interested to know what other musicicans are thinking when it comes to improv, on this board.

So my question is if you are improvising over this chord= C7

what scale, arpeggio do you use?

I know mnay ways of approaching this type of dominant chord, Just wondering what others do?

Edited April 10, 2006 by Guest

[MarcO]

I noodle around aimlessly and hope for the best.

Does this help at all?

[bradm]

If that's the only chord, I'd probably noodle around in C mixolydian.

Aloha,

Brad

[MasterShake]

You are correct. The five chord of both Major and minor keys is a dominant(Major scale with a flat seven)chord. The "7" is referring to what type of extension it is going to be. A "7" just on it's own denotes(punny!)that the seventh above the root© is going to be minor. If you see (Cm7) it means that the chord also has a minor third as well as a minor seventh.

Depending on the tune your playing, a major pentatonic(1st,2nd,3rd,5th,and 6th tones of a major scale) will work well. Especially if it's a blues, since the tendency is to use dominant 7 chords for I IV and V.

If you think you hit a wrong note, hit it again and make people believe you meant to do that.

Once is a mistake, twice is jazz!

[thatpatguy]

If you think you hit a wrong note, hit it again and make people believe you meant to do that.

Once is a mistake, twice is jazz!

do what I do.. tell people "You aren't supposed to listen to the notes I'm playing.. you are supposed to listen to the notes I'm NOT playing.. yeah man.. groovy"

[The Chameleon]

Interesting responses.

I do a number of things some of which ahve been mentioned.

You can also play bebop dominant scale. Bascially a majhor scale witht he b7 and maj7 scale tones.

Or you can, play a melodic/jazz minor scale starting fromt he 5th degree, in this case "G". This will give you an Lydian Dominant sound.

Or you can apreggiate a minor 7b5 chord one whole tone below the C7 9so B7) and you get an aletered sound.

Finally you can also play Aeolian minor on it.

Options, options..

cool to see what y'all do.

Later.

[MasterShake]

Yeah! with that jazz minor you can get that evil tritone action happenin!

Rock and/or Roll!

[MasterShake]

You gotta watch it though... cause it'll take you dangerously close to "Rush" town

YYZ!

[deranger]

Interesting responses.

I do a number of things some of which ahve been mentioned.

You can also play bebop dominant scale. Bascially a majhor scale witht he b7 and maj7 scale tones.

Or you can, play a melodic/jazz minor scale starting fromt he 5th degree, in this case "G". This will give you an Lydian Dominant sound.

Or you can apreggiate a minor 7b5 chord one whole tone below the C7 9so B7) and you get an aletered sound.

Finally you can also play Aeolian minor on it.

Options, options..

cool to see what y'all do.

Later.

then why ask in the first place?

[deranger]

sorry - didn't mean to come off as such a douchbag - really bad day at work, sorry.

also, noticed that you said,

"I know mnay ways of approaching this type of dominant chord, Just wondering what others do?"

so I guess you wanted to see if there was something else there that you weren't aware of.

peace.

[Hux]

I'd tune down and play in D flat.

[jonyak]

I just like to play, I try to make it sound good.

[Velvet]

If the C7 comes in a minor tune (ie ii-7flat5 / V7 / i-7), try C# diminished.

[The Chameleon]

If the C7 comes in a minor tune (ie ii-7flat5 / V7 / i-7), try C# diminished.

Nice I'll try that. Good idea. You proabably get an altered sound.

[The Chameleon]

sorry - didn't mean to come off as such a douchbag - really bad day at work, sorry.

also, noticed that you said,

"I know mnay ways of approaching this type of dominant chord, Just wondering what others do?"

so I guess you wanted to see if there was something else there that you weren't aware of.

peace.

No worries, everyone has a bad day frm time do time. I understand. I just wanted to see what other people to theory wise on this board. Once I saw some answers I thought, I'd share what I do. This was meant as an exchange of info among musicians, not as an excersize in intimidation or one upmanship.

It's all good.

Edited April 11, 2006 by Guest

[Velvet]

If the C7 comes in a minor tune (ie ii-7flat5 / V7 / i-7)' date=' try C# diminished.[/quote']

Nice I'll try that. Good idea. You proabably get an altered sound.

A C#dim7 chord (C#/E/G/Bb)* is a C7flat9 (C/E/G/Bb/Db) with no root (after the fifth, the root is the most disposible note), and the flat9 works well in a minor ii/V/i 'cuz the flat9 of the V chord is the minor third of the i chord.

*a very cool thing to notice is that a C#dim7 chord has the same notes as Edim7, Gdim7, and Bbdim7**, so whenever you hit the chord you can move it three frets in either direction as many times as you want and it's all the same chord. So there's really only three different diminished 7th chords.

**and all these chords work as replacement chords for a C7, especially in a minor key.

[jayr]

For fun, i'd just go nuts in C minor pentatonic.......

[AD]

I would use an F# major scale.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I noodle around aimlessly and hope for the best.

My approach exactly!

[Jay Funk Dawg]

I always approach static 7th chord vamps by building solo ideas based on the Cm blues scale and the switching to solo ideas from the C Maj scale. (of course there is a conflict with a 7th of Cmajor scale and min 7th sound of the C7, that would be notes to avoid at the end of musical idea)

C Mixolydian gives a nice effect too, not something I do very often.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

(of course there is a conflict with a 7th of Cmajor scale and min 7th sound of the C7, that would be notes to avoid at the end of musical idea)

That's what I meant to add - try not to play any of the wrong notes .

(I think Mark Twain said something like that about writing - "Writing is easy - just cross out all the wrong words.")

[PhishyK]

I would use an F# major scale.

That is going to sound like absolute and total shite

C7 is the 5th chord in the key of F

F# major is a half step up from there! It will sound like hell to use an F# maj scale.

I'm a bassie, so... C7 gives a ton of options. I find that 7 chords lend themselves to the use of a lot of passing tones.

I would probably base my bassline around the C mixolydian scale (same notes as F maj scale)

But I would use copious tasty passing tones such as:

- hammering on to the maj 3rd from the minor 3rd

- using the 'blue note' (F# in this case - the flat 5)

- chromatic runs from the 6th to the high root or the maj 3rd to the 5th

- rare strategic use of the natural minor 6th (G# in this case) also applies, especially to create tension

- easing back to the root note on a 1-beat by playing a flat 2 on the 4-beat

It is said that after the root, the 5th and the dominant 7th are the most emotive/powerful notes in a dom 7th tonality. Trey must've taken that lesson too cuz he used em to serious effect!

bass lessons anyone?

phishyk