Scale choice over Dominant Chords C7 F7 etc.

[ThomasG]

I would like to get some feedback from everybody's vast knowledge, and opionions on scale choices on soloing over Dominant chords. How would you approach soloing over F7 or C7 ? Thanks, for your feedback fellow Bassist's.

[DocBop]

Well for me my first choice is the safest choice Lydian b7 scale. Doesn't matter if it is a functioning or non-functioning dominant chord that scale works.

Now for the real answer.... It all depends

What style of music, what key, major or minor, where is it going afterwards, is it resolving, Am I in the mood for some altered sound, or this some Blues and feel is more important than notes. This a bassline or a solo. How many bars to I get to play 8, one chorus, or till my hand drops off. What are the other chordal instruments doing. Some or all of those are things that go thru our minds in a second or two as we start to play.

So you can play Lydian b7 or some pentatonic riffs or tell us more about the situation you want to play in. Style, other chords after, shredder or Jazzbo, bassline or solo? Then everyone can offer ideas.

[Jazzin']

Most common scale for a dominant-7 chord is the Mixolydian scale. It's the scale that the chord is based on. It's like the major scale but the 7th note is flattened by one semitone. You can play around with that scale and alter it. Give it a #9, b5, b6 or something.

[ryco]

or you can check out this list of dominant 7 choices with a short intro to explain the characteristics and functions of this chord

http://www.jazzbooks.com/miva/docume...m_7th_tree.pdf

hope this helps. Lots of info in this handbook! Check it out

[dlloyd]

Originally Posted by ThomasG

I would like to get some feedback from everybody's vast knowledge, and opionions on scale choices on soloing over Dominant chords. How would you approach soloing over F7 or C7 ? Thanks, for your feedback fellow Bassist's.

Where's it going after the dominant chord? What's the context?

If it's in a ii-V-i progression, the altered scale might sound great (1, b2, b3, b4, b5, b6, b7, or rather 1, b2, #2, 3, b5, #5, b7), but it would sound terrible in your average blues progression, where dominant chords are used differently.

Pentatonic minor sounds good over dominant chords, with the b3 acting as a #9.

[bassybill]

I'd normally play something based on Mixolydian, or pentatonic major with the minor 7th added, maybe with a few chromatic steps added in to make it more interesting and help land in the place where you want to be for the next bar at the right time.

(More generally speaking, landing on a note that falls on the first beat of a bar by hitting it from a semitone above or below can be really effective.)

[Bruce Lindfield]

Context and function - wthout these, you can say nothing!

[bassybill]

Bruce, you've been spending your time at that jazz summer school again, haven't you?