THE DOMINANT 7th TREE of SCALE CHOICES

The two most important notes in any scale are the 3rd and 7th. They tell the listener what the quality is and indicate the harmonic motion. The 3rd tells us if it’s major or minor. The 7th tells whether the sound is stable (doesn’t want to move to another chord) or if it wants to move on to a chord of resolution. Dominants typically want to resolve to a chord up a perfect 4th (C7 wants to resolve to F, F-, F7 etc.). The root or tonic is taken for granted. If it wasn’t there we wouldn’t be able to identify the sound.

Any of these scales (qualities/sounds/sonorities) may be played when a dominant 7th chord/scale resolves to a chord/scale whose ROOT lies a perfect 4th (5 half-steps) above the root of the dominant 7th chord.

EXAMPLE: || C7 | C7 | F | F | Ab7 | Ab7 | Db- | Db- ||
Embellish the measures with these chords: C7 and Ab7

The altered tones are in bold type. Those tones usually resolve by half step to a scale or chord tone. This amounts to tension then release. It’s a natural occurence in music. The 3rd’s and 7th’s are underlined.

SCALES :

•   DOM.7th = C7 = C D E F G A Bb C                
•   BEBOP = C7 = C D E F G A Bb B C 
•   LYDIAN DOM. = C7#4 = C D E F# G A Bb C 
•   WHOLE-TONE = C7+ = C D E F# G#  Bb C 
•   DIMINISHED = C7b9 = C Db D#  E F# G A Bb C 
•   DIM. WHOLE-TONE = C7+9 = C Db D#  E F# G#  Bb C 
•   SPANISH or JEWISH SCALE = C7 (b9) = C Db  E F G Ab Bb C 
•   CHROMATIC SCALE = C7 = C C# D D# EF F# G G# A A# B C.                                                 

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