← All exercises
Exercise
— switch — The Cycle Shells with Color Rootless Voicings Bud Powell Left Hand The Turnaround Tritone Substitution Reharm the V Diatonic Sevenths Secondary Turnaround Minor ii–V–i Minor ii-V-i with ♭9 Minor Turnaround Diatonic 7ths in Minor Backdoor Progression Twelve-Bar Blues Minor Blues Bird Blues Blues Stride LH Blues Walking Bass Rhythm Changes Boogie Blues Shuffle Rhythm Changes Bridge Blues Rootless (Evans) Coltrane Changes Blues Pedal Point Standard Intro Blues Block Chords Two-Handed Comping Blues Freddie Green Charleston Comping Bebop Blues Comp Freddie Green Comping Blues Guide Tones Walking Bass Charleston Blues Tritone-Sub Walking Bass Bud Powell Blues Drop Two Two-Handed Modern Blues Stride Bass Stride with Melody Quartal Voicings Upper Structure Triads Hybrid Voicings Kenny Barron Voicing Sus Chord Vamp The Mu Chord Maiden Voyage Chord 4-Way Close Pedal Point Lydian Vamp Phrygian Vamp Bossa Nova Guide Tones Bebop Scale Dominant Bebop Dorian Bebop Bebop Minor The Enclosure ii-V-I Lick Pentatonic Patterns Plain Locrian Melodic Minor Dorian ♭2 Lydian Augmented Lydian Dominant Mixolydian ♭6 Locrian ♮2 Altered Scale Harmonic Minor Phrygian Dominant Half-Whole Diminished Whole-Tone Scale Minor Blues Major Blues Aeolian (Natural Minor) Dorian Mode Ionian (Major) Lydian Mode Minor Pentatonic Mixolydian Mode Phrygian Mode Whole-Half Diminished
(MED. SWING ♩=80 )
13
Jazz Piano · Natural Minor Scale Harmonisation
Diatonic 7ths in Minor
The seven diatonic 7-chords of natural minor, every key
Play exercise
Stack thirds on every degree of the natural minor
scale and you get a different set of 7-chord qualities than in major:
m7, m7♭5, maj7, m7, m7, maj7, 7. The pattern starts on i (m7),
gives you the half-diminished ii (m7♭5), the relative major
(♭IIImaj7), and ends on a dominant ♭VII7 (which is the V of the
relative major — that's why ♭VII7 → ♭III is so strong).
The v chord here is a m7 — natural minor has a ♭7, not a
leading tone, so v doesn't pull to i. Jazz uses the
harmonic minor's raised 7 to make a real V7 for cadences;
see exercise 10 for that. This exercise is about the pure natural
minor harmony in isolation.
Pattern i · iiø · ♭IIImaj7 · iv · v · ♭VImaj7 · ♭VII7
Note v is a m7 in natural minor — not V7. Harmonic minor gives V7.
Jump to
Cm Fm B♭m E♭m A♭m C♯m F♯m Bm Em Am Dm Gm
1
1
1
3
X
X
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
G
m
7
A
1
2
1
3
1
X
B
7
X
X
8fr
D
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
C
m
7
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
4
3
1
1
1
X
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
C
m
7
D
1
3
2
4
X
X
E
7
X
X
13fr
G
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
1
1
1
3
X
X
A
4
3
2
1
X
X
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
G
1
3
1
2
1
1
4fr
A
7
X
X
6fr
C
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
m
7
4
3
1
1
1
X
D
X
X
6fr
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
C
2
3
1
4
X
X
D
7
X
X
4fr
F
ø
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
A
m
7
4
3
2
1
X
X
G
X
X
11fr
1
2
3
4
X
X
E
m
7
F
1
3
1
2
1
1
G
7
X
X
4fr
B
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
A
m
7
4
2
1
X
O
O
D
m
7
X
X
6fr
C
A
1
3
1
1
1
1
4fr
G
m
7
2
1
3
X
O
O
2
1
3
4
X
O
B
7
X
X
2fr
D
ø
4
2
1
X
O
O
C
m
7
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
O
O
X
E
D
4
2
1
X
O
O
C
m
7
1
2
3
X
X
O
2
1
O
O
O
O
E
7
X
X
2fr
G
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
F
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
A
2
1
3
X
O
O
B
m
7
F
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
G
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
1
3
X
O
O
O
A
7
X
X
7fr
C
ø
1
3
1
2
1
X
B
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
1
2
3
X
X
O
E
m
7
D
C
B
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
3
2
X
O
O
O
D
7
2
1
3
X
X
O
F
ø
X
X
O
2
1
X
O
O
O
E
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
A
m
7
4
3
2
1
X
X
2fr
G
F
E
m
7
2
O
O
O
O
O
3
2
1
X
X
O
G
7
3
2
1
O
O
O
B
ø
X
X
5fr
2
1
1
X
X
O
A
m
7
2
1
X
O
O
O
D
m
7
C
3
2
X
O
O
O
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
A
m
7
2
1
X
O
O
O
C
7
3
2
4
1
O
O
E
ø
X
X
3fr
D
m
7
2
1
1
X
X
O
G
m
7
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
3
2
1
X
X
O
F
1
2
3
4
X
X
D
m
7
2
1
1
X
X
O
E
1
3
1
2
1
1
F
7
X
X
3fr
A
ø
1
3
1
1
1
1
3fr
G
m
7
C
m
7
1
3
1
2
1
X
3fr
1
3
2
4
X
X
B
The Daily Drill
Hear the modal palette
4 min Pick one key. Play the seven chords ascending, calling each quality out loud: "minor 7, half-diminished, major 7, minor 7, minor 7, major 7, dominant 7." That pattern is the same in every natural minor key. 10 min Cycle three keys at a time, ♩ = 60. The chord qualities are familiar (mostly m7 and maj7 — the same seventh chords you've already met) but the order is different from major. 4 min Play the major diatonic 7ths in the relative major key, then the minor diatonic 7ths in the relative minor. Same chords, different order — the ♭III of minor is the I of major, etc. 3 min Try just the ♭VII7 → i resolution at the end. The b7 of ♭VII7 (Ab in B♭7) resolves down to G (the 5 of Cm). That's the natural-minor cadence — softer than V7-i but still functional. Why ♭VII7 instead of V7 Natural minor's 7th degree is a whole step below the tonic (B♭ in C minor), which gives a m7 chord on the v (Gm7) — no leading tone, no real cadential pull. The ♭VII7 (B♭7) is the strongest dominant-sounding chord diatonic to natural minor : it's a dominant 7 chord, and its ♭7 (A♭) resolves down to G (the 5 of i). The ♭VII7 → i cadence is sometimes called the "plagal" or "modal" cadence and shows up everywhere in modal jazz, Latin music, and post-bop. Cadences using harmonic minor's V7 are covered separately in minor_ii_v_i.
Same scale, different chords. The minor mode's full vocabulary in seven 7-chords.