The Altered Dominant Bebop Scale: Mixing Modes to Master Minor Progressions

There are certain scales that every jazz guitarist has to know. At the top of that list for me, is the Bebop Scale and it’s various alterations. This scale is found in every player’s vocabulary from Johnny Smith to Adam Rogers, and is an essential tool in any jazz guitarists improvisational tool box.

Most people who have already learned their Bebop Scales have checked out the three main types, one for m7 chords, one for 7th chords and one for maj7 chords. If these sounds are new to you, check out these links for more info and fingerings for these three important improvisational tools.

• Minor Bebop Scale
• Dominant Bebop Scale
• Major Bebop Scale

If you’ve already worked these out in the practice room, then you’re set to add a new sound to your Bebop Scale collection, the Altered Dominant Bebop Scale.

To build the Altered Dominant Bebop scale, you are going take the notes of the 5th mode of the harmonic minor scale, in this article we’ll use G as our tonic so the notes will be G-Ab-B-C-D-Eb-F-G, and mix in the passing note, major 7th, from the minor and dominant bebop scales.

The resulting scale has the following notes and can be used to improvise over the iim7 and/or V7alt chord in a minor ii-V-I progression.

G-Ab-B-C-D-Eb-F-F#

or

R-b9-3-11-5-b13-b7-7

Notice how the scale uses the chromatic passing notes that characterize the Bebop Scale, as well as outlines the important notes of an altered chord, the b9, 3, b13 and b7.

Here is a fingering I like to use for the Altered Bebop Scale starting on the sixth string. I start with my middle finger, then use four fingers per string on the chromatic sections, 1234, and use 1244 for the ascending B-C-D-Eb strings, and 4311 for those strings when coming down the scale.

Go slow when learning this scale. It’s tricky at first to get under your fingers and in your ears, especially if you haven’t worked on another Bebop Scale, or Harmonic Minor modes before today.

Practice playing up and down the scale in all 12 keys. Then, once you can do that at a slow tempo start to improvise with it. Use a backing track and practice soloing over G7alt using this scale. Then use it over Dm7b5-G7alt. Then take both those chords into 12 keys, improvising in each one until you’re comfortable before moving on to the next tonic.

G Altered Bebop Scale 6th String Root

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Here is the same scale, though this time with a fifth string root. The same fingerings can apply to this scale as well, just starting one string higher.  As well, you can use all the same exercises from the previous paragraph to practice this fingering in the woodshed.

G Altered Bebop Scale 5th String Root

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The first thing I like to do when shedding any Bebop scale, besides learning the basic fingering and improvising with it over chord changes, is to apply some of my favorite bebop patterns to the scale.

One of my favorites to use with the Altered Dominant Bebop Scale is playing an ascending diminished arpeggio from the third scale degree. This “resets” the scale back to the top, allowing you to start over and get more mileage out of simply playing down the entire scale.

Try this pattern out, which is written down for you in the following example. If you want to explore more patterns with this scale, check out my article “21 Bebop Scale Patterns for Jazz Guitar.”

G Altered Bebop Scale Diminished Arpeggio Pattern

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The following lick is based off an idea that Clifford Brown used a lot in his solo on the tune “A Night in Tunisia.” I’ve altered the last bar a little from the recording to add in the Minor Bebop scale, so you can see how the two fit together.

Just as you would use three different Bebop Scales over a major ii-V-I progression:

iim7 = Minor Bebop

V7 = Dominant Bebop

Imaj7 = Major Bebop

You can use two different Bebop scales when soloing in any minor key ii-V-I.

iim7b5 = Altered Bebop Starting on the 11th (for Dm7b5 you start the scale on the note G)

V7alt = Altered Bebop

ImMaj7 = Minor Bebop

Check out how Clifford worked this scale into this phrase, very cool ideas both rhythmically and melodically. As I tell my students, this is a must know lick, so take some time and really get this sound in your ears and fingering in your hands so that you can use it organically in your own solos without sounding like you’re just running the line.

Clifford Brown Altered Bebop Scale Lick Key of C Minor

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The Bebop Scale and its variations are important sounds that every jazz guitarist should explore during their development. Learning the Altered Dominant Bebop Scale will allow you to take all of the Dominant, Minor and Major Bebop Scale patterns you’ve learned and apply them to a minor tonality.

Check out the Altered Dominant Bebop Scale. It’s a cool sound, and one that can really help you get inside minor ii-V-I changes.

Check Out Related Jazz Guitar Lessons

Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale and Their Application

Master Altered Chords With A New Approach to Scales

Jim Hall Inspired Altered Dominant Chord Scale

9 Ways to Master the Harmonic Minor Modes for Jazz Guitar

Modernize Your Dominant Chords with the Allan Holdsworth Bebop Scale