FAQ on Substitute Harmony

by Scott Hesse

One of the things my students most often ask is how to use different substituted sounds over various chords. In particular, they ask how to make the Major 7th chord more interesting. For all of the other 7th chords, it's not too difficult to find extended, altered, and subbed harmonies that make them sound more interesting. Why should it be different for the Major 7th?

The answer is, it really isn't that difficult.

Apart from the 9th, #11th, and 13th extensions (which I love), I find a lot of material from the Harmonic Minor scale. More specifically, from the 6th mode of the scale which is also known as the Lydian #2 scale.

Below, I've written the Lydian #2 scale in two octaves. The fingering is a suggested one that works well for the way I play. If it works for you, great. If not, there are other fingerings you can explore.

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Here, I've broken the chord tones (1, 3, 5, and 7) apart from the scale and added tertial harmony so you can get a bigger harmonic picture of this superimposed sound. What it boils down to is that the G#, or #2 of the scale, becomes an integral melodic choice. At first, this might seem like an odd choice for a subbed harmony on a Major 7th chord. After all, you have the #2 pitted against the Major 3rd of the chord. But you can learn to use this to great effect. 

In this last part, I've taken each of the above harmonies and broken them down as arpeggios. All of these different chords you see (the A-(Maj7), CMaj7#5, and E7) work very well over the FMaj7 chord. The arpeggiated line below just outlines these different sounds so you can get your ear used to this sonority.

Learning how to expand your harmonic/melodic choices starts with first getting these different choices in your ear.  Like the title of my upcoming workshop says, "You'll play it when you hear it."   

If you have any questions about harmonies, improvisation, or anything else music-related, feel free to comment below-- or bring them to the workshop! 

Happy practicing!!