Lydian Dominant question

[Distant Cousin]

I've recently started learning and playing jazz. I'm playing with a couple of people, both much more experienced in jazz than I am. We played around with A Night in Tunisia, and the guitarist said something about soloing over the main section in the Lydian Dominant? He said it's the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale, so in the key of the song (the version I have is D Minor), that would be:

Ascending: G A B C# D E F (G)
Descending: G F E D C Bb A (G)

Right?

My next question is, when would I use that? He was pretty vague about when he would use it in his solos. Also, why would I want to use this instead of the regular D Minor scale?

[slybass3000]

Minor melodic modes have nothing to do with harmonic functions in a key. They are used on specific chords colors that have nothing to do with the key you play in.

For Lydian dominant, just play the regular mixolydian scale of the dominant chord and raise the fourth. That's it!

Of course there are more depths to this but in this case it will work. You just have to know when to use that specific scale when it is not specified as a #11. Like as a bii7 or a bvii7 for example.


Oh and I forgot to mention this: In jazz application, the melodic minor scale is played the same way down as the when you play up. It is called sometimes the melodic minor jazz.

In the case of Night in Tunisia , he meant playing Eb7 lydian, but honestly I don't think it is the right choice to solo over the Dmin6 and the Eb7 IMO.

[MalcolmAmos]

This is a bass solo, right?

Song is in Dm, what is the chord progression doing during your solo? Does it revert to a modal vamp for your solo or just stick with the Dm progression. http://www.riddleworks.com/modalharm3.html

If you are to play over a progression I'd follow the chords and draw my solo notes from pentatonic scales of the chord changes. Lets compare pentatonic and modes and see what we have.

Notes of fourth mode of the melodic minor scale;
G F E D C Bb A

What are the notes in the D minor pentatonic?
D, F, G, A, C

What are the notes in the G minor pentatonic?
G, Bb, C, D, F

What are the notes in the A minor pentatonic?
A, C, D, E, G

All of those pentatonic notes fit within the mode you were pointed to.

Just me, but, chord tones rule my bass line and pentatonic work for bass solos. Why? Most of the time the guys stick with the chord progression and a chord progression calls attention to the V7-I tonal center - a mode needs a modal vamp - if you do not have the vamp no modal mood is being created so why are you even thinking of using a mode? Pentatonic scales over the chord changes will give you all the notes you need for your solo plus not being in scale order help with not sounding like a scale exercise. Course nothing beats playing the tune for your solo.

Something to think about.