Wes style chord scales lesson

**Christian Miller** · 10-23-2025, 10:39 AM

I think this concept may be familiar to many of you, but I’ll post this video here anyway

Quick hack that turns boring SCALES into JAZZ!

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**AllanAllen** · 10-23-2025, 10:48 AM

I like how you underlay a few Dm7 strums when you explain the arpeggio.

**Christian Miller** · 10-23-2025, 12:00 PM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

I like how you underlay a few Dm7 strums when you explain the arpeggio.

Thanks! I was in two minds whether to spend time doing that. Nice that it’s helpful.

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**AllanAllen** · 10-23-2025, 12:18 PM

It makes the color tones pop

**Jimmy Mack** · 10-23-2025, 06:19 PM

Thank you for doing this video, and posting it. It explains a lot, to us students of Jazz. One of the best videos I have seen on the subject, and on Wes!

**Christian Miller** · 10-23-2025, 06:20 PM

Originally Posted by Jimmy Mack

Thank you for doing this video, and posting it. It explains a lot, to us students of Jazz. One of the best videos I have seen on the subject, and on Wes!

Thanks Jimmy

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**AllanAllen** · 10-25-2025, 11:40 PM

I used these at every opportunity at tonight’s gig. If I slipped into old habits and fell into scales I’d use one of these shapes to pull myself out.

**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 07:03 AM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

I used these at every opportunity at tonight’s gig. If I slipped into old habits and fell into scales I’d use one of these shapes to pull myself out.

Fab! I’m glad they’re so applicable right away.

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**garybaldy** · 10-26-2025, 09:54 AM

Great video. Is it ok to think of the min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher?

**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 10:07 AM

Originally Posted by garybaldy

Great video. Is it ok to think of the min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher?

Sure. You can break it down into other substructures too

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**Mick-7** · 10-26-2025, 10:18 AM

Originally Posted by garybaldy

Great video. Is it ok to think of the min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher?

Originally Posted by Christian Miller

Sure. You can break it down into other substructures too.

I could not even decipher that question.

**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 10:30 AM

Originally Posted by Mick-7

I could not even decipher that question.

Really?

Like Dm + Cmaj7

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**Mick-7** · 10-26-2025, 10:42 AM

Originally Posted by Christian Miller

Really? Like Dm + Cmaj7

I would not have derived that from: "think of a min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher"

**bluenote61** · 10-26-2025, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Mick-7

I would not have derived that from: "think of a min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher"

Same for me. It took a while to get behind the wording. But finally I got it.

**rpjazzguitar** · 10-26-2025, 01:05 PM

Dm7 followed by Em works. Making it an Em7 doubles the D.

D F A C followed by E G B (D). That's all the notes in Cmaj or D dorian. Same notes as Dm13.

For Cmaj you get (stacking thirds) C E G B D F A. Which can be viewed as Cmaj7 followed by Dm. If you want to double the C an octave higher then you can think Dm7. Same notes as Cmaj13.

Pretty good idea to think of arps as spelling 13th chords rather than 7th chords.

Or you can think about an arp to the 7th, followed by another arp a step higher.

Then, you have to figure out how to get it into your playing in a pleasing way.

**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 01:28 PM

Originally Posted by Mick-7

I would not have derived that from: "think of a min13 as a min7 plus a min7 a tone higher"

It’s another substructure

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**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 01:29 PM

Or a ladder of triads Dm - Am - Em - Bo

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**Christian Miller** · 10-26-2025, 01:29 PM

Good job I didn’t put that stuff in the video innit, otherwise it would be 3 hours long

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**AllanAllen** · 10-26-2025, 02:53 PM

I’m interested, that ladder of triads. Is there a chord type that gets an augmented triad in the ladder? I so really see augmented in jazz.

**Mick-7** · 10-26-2025, 07:04 PM

Originally Posted by AllanAllen

I’m interested, that ladder of triads. Is there a chord type that gets an augmented triad in the ladder? I so really see augmented in jazz.

Well, these are all in the Dorian mode of which he spoke: "a ladder of triads Dm - Am - Em - Bo."

You'd have to borrow the leading tone (C#) from the relative melodic or harmonic minor scales, D mm or D hm, to get the aug. triads: F+, A+, & C#+ - which are inversions of the same chord.

Later on in the video he talked about playing the altered scale over G7, but I don't know how that tied in to his Dorian mode discussion because Ab melodic minor is unrelated to Dm.

**rpjazzguitar** · 10-26-2025, 09:56 PM

It occurs to me that this is very similar to Warren Nunes' teaching (which I've posted before, sorry for the repetition). Two kinds of chords, Type I and Type II.

Cmaj7 = Em7 = Am7

Dm7 = Fmaj7 = G7 = Am7 (double duty) = Bm7b5

The = sign means interchangeable, not identical.

Both groups contain all the white keys.

**Christian Miller** · 10-27-2025, 03:14 AM

Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar

It occurs to me that this is very similar to Warren Nunes' teaching (which I've posted before, sorry for the repetition). Two kinds of chords, Type I and Type II.

Cmaj7 = Em7 = Am7

Dm7 = Fmaj7 = G7 = Am7 (double duty) = Bm7b5

The = sign means interchangeable, not identical.

Both groups contain all the white keys.

Note that with the exception of the Am7 the second category includes F and the first does not

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**princeplanet** · 10-27-2025, 11:35 AM

Originally Posted by rpjazzguitar

It occurs to me that this is very similar to Warren Nunes' teaching (which I've posted before, sorry for the repetition). Two kinds of chords, Type I and Type II.

Cmaj7 = Em7 = Am7

Dm7 = Fmaj7 = G7 = Am7 (double duty) = Bm7b5

The = sign means interchangeable, not identical.

Both groups contain all the white keys.

It's commonly accepted that the Fmaj7 (because it contains the fourth degree obviously) belongs in the Dominant group of chords. But I find the IV chord to be rather ambivalent in that it sounds good to me to play Tonic ideas against it in various contexts (eg. the opening chord in Just friends, or the IV in Autumn Leaves, ATTYA etc). So for me the IV chord swings both ways. YMMV.

**Christian Miller** · 10-27-2025, 11:40 AM

Originally Posted by princeplanet

It's commonly accepted that the Fmaj7 (because it contains the fourth degree obviously) belongs in the Dominant group of chords

I’m not sure I’d say ‘commonly’

There is blurring between the dominant and subdominant functions in jazz. But they are not totally the same thing. It’s more that the leading tone isn’t always used.

It’s aggravating the theory books get so much into the weeds on this about the 13th on the II chord “giving the dominant away” and all this stuff. Actual jazz players just use what they like.

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**princeplanet** · 10-27-2025, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by Christian Miller

I’m not sure I’d say ‘commonly’

There is blurring between the dominant and subdominant functions in jazz. But they are not totally the same thing. It’s more that the leading tone isn’t always used.

It’s aggravating the theory books get so much into the weeds on this about the 13th on the II chord “giving the dominant away” and all this stuff. Actual jazz players just use what they like.

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I wonder what you, (or others if they care to share?) choose to play against the IV chord, even for just the 3 examples I mentioned earlier? T or D? Or S??