Blue Bossa Improvisation Scales - Melodic Minor in Jazz

Learn how to use melodic minor scales in jazz improvisation over minor 6 chords, dominants, and minor 2-5s. Demonstrated on the tune Blue Bossa.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Intro
0:39 - Melodic minor in jazz
4:24 - Cm6 improv
7:05 - Dm7b5 G7 improv
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[@fritzfischer3648]

6:35 I think it depends on what you learned first. Someday I learned to play the diminished over dominants, then the wholetone scale. The altered scale is for you the Ab melodic minor over g, for me it is a scale which starts as diminished and ends as a wholetone scale. The Barry Harris stuff opened for me the movement element. And you and your channel became a part of my musical journey. Thank you for that!

[@stevenkeller476]

Thank you so much for your gently charismatic teaching style. Love this stuff!

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you so much Steven. I appreciate your kind comment and wish you the best.

[@KevinB-pd3me]

Thanks Sean, for demystifying scale selections over minor key progressions. Often other instructors say, "Remember to play this scale over this chord, and that scale over that chord."
But you (and Barry) offer a straightforward, logic-based approach that's easy to retain and apply.

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you so much Kevin. I'm glad that it helped and I wish you good jazz!

[@mickcarpenter2963]

I really liked working from this specific example of a minor tune, using a variety of scale choices. You started from a firm grounding in the basics and then flew up pretty high. Great stuff, really nice conversational style.

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you and I wish you the best with your playing.

[@dannuttle9005]

Perfect. Blue Bossa is my first song to really try to get inside of and build improv skills beyond the blues scale. So this is exactly what I needed.

[@JazzSkills]

Great! I hope it goes well for you.

[@chrisbardolph]

I always liked the sound of major 6s and 7s on blue bossa. Good to know I'm not imagining things.

[@myMusicHobby302]

Very well explained, Sean!

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you 🙂

[@domgarnettfishing]

Really helpful stuff, thank you so much Shan! In the space of just a few minutes you've expanded my musical range on this tune. I really like your approach- it's perfectly broken down without being dumbed down. I find CZcams such a minefield of licks and tricks that sound superficially good but don't actually improve my playing beyond learning a new phrase or two- when actually, slow and methodical improvement is what so many of us really need. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness to the learner.

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you so much for your kind comment and I wish you the best with your playing.

[@greggakkerman]

Great content Sean. I appreciate you explaining that the altered scale actually has a simpler “name” than many of us we taught back in the day.

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you and your kind comment. I like a simple life 🙂

[@Pianoensolitario]

Exelente!

[@MsMarcow]

Thank you a lot

[@DavidWeinbergGG]

Very cool. Thank you Sean.

[@JazzSkills]

Glad you liked it. All the best.

[@paulr494]

Great content as always, always taken aback by the fact you have enough mental bandwidth to
Comment on your playing as you go along. Just playing fills by bandwidth 😅

[@JazzSkills]

😂 That's a great comment!

[@kabelomkhabela4766]

Where can one find the backing track for practicing?

[@sallayjeno2994]

Ebm7| Ab7|Dbmaj7
I use the Ab7 on A melodic minor?

[@LaurentMichel]

Hi Sean, is there a lesson on Blue Bossa in the Jazz Skill Member area?

[@JazzSkills]

Hi Laurent, so far, I haven't gone into detail on this one but you can ask any questions you have in the Jazz Skills community and I'll answer them or create some content to help.

[@stevenkeller476]

Hey Shan, good morning. I studied with an Instructor and arranger named Ray Brown, ( not the Bass player) and he always emphasized not playing on the fourth degree (fa) on majors and dominants. Did Barry Harris ever go over this as it relates to the diminished 6th system? Would love to get your perspective on this. Would he gravitate towards the #11 and how might that relate to the substitutions(the family)? Thanks so much for what you do.

[@JazzSkills]

Thank you Steven. We never avoided the 4th in improv discussions and phrase building. Using the scale rules (I have some videos on here about that) makes us sound "right" even when we start a phrases on the 4th degree.

[@stevenkeller476]

@@JazzSkills Thank you Shan!

[@alessandrotesta63]

Dear Shon, you are improvising in a beautiful way. But my impression is that you are improvising on chords and not on scales.