Letting go of Melodic Minor...

[christianm77]

Tl;dr I try to teach Barry harris

Sometimes I downplay certain aspects (like added note scales) to get started.

[pingu]

John Stowell, all melodic minor, yikes...

30 years ago when I studied for 2 years privately with Mark Levine he would have me play standards like Take The A Train and apply a melodic minor mode to every single chord in the form. He was especially good at block chording in MM. It became easy after a while to effortlessly play a MM mode on any chord. I drilled with flash cards at home, 7 cards for each of the 12 keys. Would mix them up randomly and then sight read them, also had all the wholetone scale and diminished/V7b9 chords as cards too. It worked. I never have to think about it now days, it’s automatic.

scuse my ignorance!
which mm did you play on the tonic (say C) ?

[joe2758]

Solo guitar study group for What's New here's the What's New thread. To make this on topic, you can use melodic minor or not

[bako]

which mm did you play on the tonic (say C) ?

C major is definitely the starting reference but..........

You could use notes from Ab mm for a G7alt passing chord effect (V7 of I)

You could use notes from F mm for a Bb13(#11) passing chord effect
(backdoor dominant)

You can also use A mm for a temporary brightening of tonic major with Cma9(#11).
Similar to how lydian is sometimes used.

Probably wouldn't do any of this on a country and western ballad.

[bako]

Christian,

Thanks for such a comprehensive answer.
Do you teach basic major and minor scale harmonizations as a starting
reference for key centers and progression labeling or is there another
approach to cover that stuff as well?

[christianm77]

Christian,

Thanks for such a comprehensive answer.
Do you teach basic major and minor scale harmonizations as a starting
reference for key centers and progression labeling or is there another
approach to cover that stuff as well?

Sure - in theory, but actually I don’t often have to teach that stuff as most of my students seem to know it already!

I think minor harmony is a little less familiar to most.

I teach Roman numeral stuff to general guitar beginners ASAP as it’s handy.

In terms of chords within the key - I just go with basic functions, major, minor, dominant. You could harmonise a scale a number of different ways based on that.

But it can’t be overstated that many students know theory far in advance of their actual playing. My job in general seems to be to put it together and get students playing tunes and language, picking up stuff by ear, going more into the right brain stuff.

[pingu]

with Mark Levine he would have me play standards like Take The A Train and apply a melodic minor mode to every single chord in the form.

which mm did you play on the first chord of A train ?

[christianm77]

Quotes from my research I thought people might enjoy. May relate to melodic minor, CST and the notorious 'Berklee funk' haha... I particularly love the first sentence.

"Music education is not problematic until it surfaces in schools and colleges, until it becomes formal, institutionalised. If we want to strum a guitar, get into the plot of a Wagner opera, play a sitar or sing in a chorus, then finding a teacher, reading a book or joining a performing group may be all we need to do. There is no need to form a curriculum committee, produce a rationale or declare a list of objectives. The informal music student can copy jazz riffs from recordings, ask friends about fingering or chord patterns, learn by imitation – ‘sitting next to Nelly’ – or widen musical experience by watching television, listening to the radio or exploring record shops. Formal instruction may not be necessary, though for some these formal systems may be crucial points of access."

"More recently, and in an attempt to recognise the reality of this music ‘out there’, elements of popular music have indeed entered the formal education scene. But in order to make itself respectable and to become appropriately institutionalised, popular music has to be modified, abstracted and analysed to fit into classrooms, timetables and the aims of music education. The impact of the loudness level is reduced, dancing is impractical and the socio-cultural context is shorn away. During this reductive process the activity often becomes what Ross calls ‘pseudo music’."

Swanwick, Keith. Teaching Music Musically (Classic Edition) (Routledge Education Classic Edition Series) (p. 33). Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.

Good book.

[christianm77]

Well, I’m off to play some pseudo music

[citizenk74]

Well, I’m off to play some pseudo music