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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 )
66
Jazz Piano · V7♯11 Vocabulary
Lydian Dominant
Mixolydian with a ♯11, all twelve keys
Play exercise
Take mixolydian (the dominant scale) and raise the 4th. C
lydian dominant: C D E F♯ G A B♭ C . The ♯11
(F♯ over a C7 chord) is the defining sound — bright, hovering,
modern. The natural 6 (A) and natural 9 (D) keep the scale
consonant; the ♭7 (B♭) keeps it a dominant.
Use this scale over any V7 chord that doesn't sound like a
"standard" dominant: the I7 in a blues, the IV7 going to ♭VII,
tritone-sub dominants, modal vamps on a V7 chord. Whenever a
chord chart shows 7(♯11) , this is the scale.
Now 2 octaves, both hands — the same pattern extended up and back with fingering marked above every note in each hand.
Intervals 1 – 2 – 3 – ♯11 – 5 – 6 – ♭7. Mixolydian with raised 4.
Parent Mode 4 of melodic minor up a fifth. C ldom = G melodic minor.
Jump to
C7♯11 F7♯11 B♭7♯11 E♭7♯11 A♭7♯11 D♭7♯11 F♯7♯11 B7♯11 E7♯11 A7♯11 D7♯11 G7♯11
X
11fr
C
7
add
11
C
7
add
11
X
11fr
X
16fr
F
7
add
11
F
7
add
11
X
16fr
X
21fr
B
7
add
11
X
21fr
B
7
add
11
X
14fr
E
7
add
11
X
14fr
E
7
add
11
A
7
add
11
X
19fr
X
19fr
A
7
add
11
D
7
add
11
X
12fr
X
12fr
D
7
add
11
X
17fr
F
7
add
11
X
17fr
F
7
add
11
B
7
add
11
X
22fr
X
22fr
B
7
add
11
E
7
add
11
X
15fr
X
15fr
E
7
add
11
X
20fr
A
7
add
11
X
20fr
A
7
add
11
X
13fr
D
7
add
11
D
7
add
11
X
13fr
X
18fr
G
7
add
11
G
7
add
11
X
18fr
The Daily Drill
Hear the ♯11
3 min Play C7 mixolydian for 4 bars, then C7 lydian dominant for 4 bars over a static C7 vamp. The only difference is F vs F♯ — but it changes the mood from bluesy-functional to floating-modern. 8 min Cycle three keys. The ♯11 is the only sharp; everything else is in the parent dominant. Don't fight it — let the ♯11 ring. 4 min Use it as a tritone sub. Play D♭7(♯11) resolving to Cmaj7. D♭ lydian dominant = A♭ melodic minor's 4th mode. The ♯11 (G) is the 5 of C — voice-leads beautifully. 3 min Apply to a blues. Over the I7 (C7 in a C blues), play lydian dominant instead of mixolydian. The F♯ is the blue note. Real blues players have been doing this forever. Why the ♯11 sounds so consonant The ♯11 (F♯ over a C root) is a tritone above the root. A tritone is conventionally a dissonance — but in a dominant 7 chord, there is already a tritone (between 3 and ♭7: E and B♭ in C7). Adding the ♯11 doesn't introduce a new dissonance class; it stacks a second tritone (C to F♯) on the existing one. Two stacked tritones a major third apart produce a whole-tone sonority (C-E-F♯-B♭ are four notes of the whole-tone scale). That's why it doesn't sound "wrong" — it sounds modern. The ear hears it as the V7 with extra brightness, not as a clash.
Sharp the 4 of any dominant and it goes from bebop to ECM in one note.