Altered Scale - 3 Great Pentatonic Solutions (Easy And Powerful)

Finding good ideas for using The altered scale can be difficult and often we end up just running the scale and not really making any interesting melodies.
In this video I will go over 3 pentatonic scales you can use when improvising over an altered dominant which is a great way to get some strong and interesting ideas.

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0:00 Intro
0:47 Example 1
0:55 Ab melodic minor and Bb minor pentatonic
1:46 Normal Bb minor + 3-1 fingering of the pentatonic scale
2:22 Analyzing Example 1
4:02 Example 2
4:09 Abm6 pentatonic scale
4:59 Analyzing Example 2
5:44 Mixing Legato and Alternate Picking
6:31 Exercise for combining Picking and legato
6:56 Example 3
7:02 The Eb major b6 pentatonic scale
7:48 How to play and construct the scale
8:05 Economy Picking and Analysis of Example 3
9:29 Like the video? Check out my Patreon Page

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[JensLarsen]

Would some more videos on these technical examples and exercises be useful?

[vladjones]

I never fail to learn something from your channel Jens: love the ideas/concepts based approach rather than 'licks' approach although there's always top notch 'licks' to take away too

[sugaall]

Very nice idea to define pentatonic scales within the altered scale. Makes it easier to come up with interessting altered pattern. Great content, even for me as a piano player 👌

[josiecrotwell]

this was is really great very useful info, thanK you! I have lots of new 2-5 ideas

[crazybunkum]

Brilliant - really cool solution for altered chords. 🙏 thanks

[micahcarlsen]

I’ve come back to this one and got a lot more out of it, probably as I understand the relationship between melodic minor and altered stuff. The penny is dropping. I’m still at a loss about how the Dorian mode fits into it all tho🧐
Thankyou, great lesson
Micah 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🙏

[wigleboy]

Great video, I really like how you put historical references into the the explanations of concepts. It really helps me remember. For Example like today with post Hard Bop, when you mention Cotrane Patterns, or the video on the Bird Blues really sticks with me.

[anthonydemitre]

Yes make more videos of this type, again you put order to my chaotic mind, I O U big time! Jens

[railcar]

Great valuable lesson as always Jens. That Ab(b6) pentatonic is great to mix with a Gm pent the dom7 (F) is common.

[jumemowery]

Jens, are you getting tired of me saying things like "Great lesson! Thanks Jens!" ?

[gregoryswift]

How does The Ab and Gb not clash with the root G. It understand it's more of a passing chord as opposed to static but it's so counterintuitive. Then again this is jazz and what I was looking for to "go outside" persay. Great videos Thanks

[rockguitarmodes]

Great ideas: would F minor pentatonic work too?

Notes from the Fm pent related to Galt scale would be

b7 b9 b3 4 #5 (no major 3rd though)

[LucasWilson]

Hi jens i always watch your videos to learn more, and to find new cool info. Your videos are great! That being said... i asked in class about the use of the Bbm pentatonic in the altered dominant because i could not make it sound. My teacher told me that maybe it was because it has not tritone so it does not conduct the melody to resolve. Thoughts about that? Tips to make it sound? Thanks for always posting interesting videos and solving doubts!

[afterrockradio]

Pentatonics were used in jazz decades before the end of the hard-bop era

[vbrajprasad]

Sounds very good. Bit complicated to understand....

[herrschnupke]

So we're playing the Ab melodic minor scale over Galt. And the second position of Ab melodic minor right? This scale could also be called dorian b2 and has all the notes which would be in an usual minor pentatonic scale. Am I getting it right Jens? Could you please confirm it or correct me if I'm wrong? Thank you in advance.

[samkirby]

Hi Jens, do you have any lessons teaching how to play open notes in between fretted notes? It sounds really great when you can get it right. It pops up the notes, creates sort of a bubbling sound.