We come to the end of the series of blogs related to the Jazz Melodic Minor, this post will focus on The Altered Scale.
The simplest way to look at this scale is by playing any melodic minor scale from it's 7th degree.
What Is The Altered Scale?
The altered scale is the 7th mode of the melodic minor scale. The uniqueness of this scale is the fact that every single scale-tone is 'flattened' except the root of course.
It can get pretty confusing for most people to remember the intervallic definition. So I prefer teaching this scale simply as a melodic minor played from it's 7th degree.
Intervallic Analysis
Let's visualise the difference between the major scale and the altered scale, taking C as our root:
Major Scale | The Altered Scale |
C (1) | C (1) |
D (2) | D (2) |
E (3) | Eb (b3) |
F (4) | Fb/E (b4) |
G (5) | Gb (b5) |
A (6) | Ab (b6) |
B (7) | Bb (b7) |
Based on this table, we can conclude that the intervallic spelling for locrian natural 2 is: 1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7.
Related Harmony
The related harmony for locrian natural 2 is as follows:
Roman Numeral | Triad Harmony | 7th Chord Harmony | Notes In C |
I | Dim | Min7(b5) | C |
bII | Min | Min/Maj7 | Db |
bIII | Min | Min7 | Eb |
bIV | Aug | Maj7(#5) | Fb |
bV | Maj | Dom7 | Gb |
bVI | Maj | Dom7 | Ab |
bVII | Dim | Min7(b5) | Bb |
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