Improvising on a musical instrument can be an extremely daunting task. Musicians spend entire lifetimes perfecting the art of improvising by practicing modes, transcribing solos played by the greats, and working on exercises that lend themselves to soloing. The greatest general advice for a budding improviser is to listen extensively and transcribe effective licks, and practice them in every key. The toughest part for younger musicians is learning, outside of transcriptions, what notes are the “right” ones and the “wrong” ones. The best way to establish the possibilities and limits implied within a chord is to study chord-scale theory and apply it to practice. While I will not spend any time in this article analyzing excerpts, I will discuss scale options when approaching specific chord types.

Within this article, we will discuss some options for minor 7 chords. For simplicity's sake, I will refer to the notes within a C min7 chord, with the chord being built by the notes C, Eb, G, and Bb.

The easiest option for this chord would be a C natural minor scale, or C Aeolian. The notes of this scale would be C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb. This is the general scale of choice when improvising over a min7 chord. Just like a major scale, the same modes apply to this scale, but begin with C Aeolian. The other modes comprised within the C natural minor scale would be D Locrian, E Ionian, F Dorian, G Phrygian, Ab Lydian, and Bb Mixolydian. However, in the jazz idiom, a C Dorian mode would be more preferably used. This mode alters the natural minor by one note, raising the 6^th scale degree up a half step. The resulting scale would be C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb.

One easy fallback in these situations is a minor pentatonic scale. A pentatonic scale is a 5 note scale, built with the scale degrees 1,3,4,5,7. Over C this would be C, Eb, F, G, Bb. This “opens” up the sound of the melody, as the presence of minor thirds are not common in our average octatonic (eight note) scales. Pentatonic scales are often associated with Eastern music, so often this will give a “world music” vibe to the melodies played.

An alternative is to add a passing tone to highlight different chord degrees, as many bebop players would do. The “minor bebop scale” you'll commonly find in books and Aebersold references has a passing tone between the 3^th and 4^th scale degrees of a Dorian scale. The resulting scale in C would be C, D, Eb, E, F, G, A, Bb. However, when you're doing your transcribing and listening (which I hope you didn't forget about already), you'll realize that passing tones, both ascending and descending, can work around any chord tone. Worth noting, however, is that chromatically neighboring tones can become significantly weaker around extended chord tones (i.e. the 9^th, 11^th, 13^th).

Also very useful over minor chords are your everyday harmonic and melodic minor scales. The harmonic minor scale consists of a C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, B. The melodic minor scale (its ascending form in common practice theory) consists of C, D, Eb, F, G, A, B. These modes are especially effective at highlighting the root of the chord, and they work well with lines that resolve into the 1^st scale degree due to the presence of a leading tone.

Eventually, playing relative modes of a minor scale and adding chromatically neighboring tones will run its course. Within different contexts, using a knowledge of modes to alter specific notes can add very unique colors to a soloist's palette.

One easy way to add color to the way you approach minor 7^th chords is to use a Phrygian mode. This is particularly effective when the chord is specified as a min7b9, but can still work over a chord where this is not specified. The C Phrygian mode would spell out as C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb.

An interesting mode that can be used over a min7 chord is the 4^th mode of the Harmonic Minor Scale, which is referred to as an "altered Dorian", "Ukranian Dorian", or a Misheberak scale. The scale, on C, would be spelled as C, D, Eb, F#, G, A, Bb. The presence of a minor 3^rd between the 3^rd and 4^th scale degrees opens up the color of this scale, giving it a very haunting tone.

The 5^th mode of the Double Harmonic Scale, which we touched upon in our last chord-scale series article, is called a Hungarian Minor. This mode works well over min7 chords and is spelled out as C, D, Eb, F#, G, Ab, B. Again, the presence of minor thirds that are so common in Eastern tonality give a very unique color to improvised solos within Western music. This scale, interestingly enough, contains two minor thirds. The minor third from Eb to F# as well as the minor third between Ab and B not only give the scale space, but also serve to reinforce the tonic and dominant of the scale. These can be used in very interesting melodic ways, especially with the dominant surrounded by half steps on either side.

Both the Neapolitan Major and Minor scale are technically minor scales in the sense that the 3^rd scale degree is a minor third from the tonic. The Neapolitan Major scale is C, Db, Eb, F, G, A, B, and the Neapolitan Minor scale is C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab, B. While there is only one note of alteration, take note that this can make all the difference. When choosing between these two modes, jazz musicians would gravitate towards the Neapolitan Major due to the presence of a natural 6^th scale degree. Both, however, contain a major 7^th.

The 4^th mode of the Neapolitan Minor scale spells out to a Natural Minor with a raised 4^th, or an Aeolian #4. This would be spelled as C, D, Eb, F#, G, Ab, Bb. This is almost identical to the Hungarian Minor, except that the 7^th is minor. This is great for those who seek the exotic presence of the minor third within the scale, but want to retain the minor 7^th that would be specified in a min7 chord.

In the first chord-scale series article, we discussed the variety of Pentatonic scales that are presented by Koto tuning scales in Japanese music. The Hirajoshi tuning scale contains an Aeolian mode that is slightly different than our average minor pentatonic scale. The "Aeolian Hirajoshi" spells out as C, D, Eb, G, Ab.

The Insen tuning scale contains three modes that are useful over min7 chords. The "Aeolian Insen" would be spelled as C, D, Eb, G, Bb. Another mode of the Insen is spelled out as C, D, F, G, Ab. The presence of the 4^th and absence of the 3^rd scale degree have led me to refer to this mode as the "Aeolian Sus Insen", for lack of better words. The first mode of the Insen Tuning scale would be most related to a Phrygian mode. The "Phrygian Insen" spells out as C, Db, F, G, Bb.

The Kumoi tuning scale only has one mode that does NOT work over a min7 chord, and for this reason has become especially popular with rock guitarists. The Kumoi tuning scale in its natural mode is most related to a Dorian mode. The "Dorian Kumoi" spells out as C, D, Eb, G, A. The presence of a natural 6^th in this mode makes it especially gravitating for jazz soloists. The second mode of this scale is most related to our Phrygian mode. The "Phrygian Kumoi" spells out as C, Db, F, G, Bb. What's especially interesting about this scale is that the absence of a 3^rd allows this scale to be used over both min7 chords and dominant 7 chords freely, and added bonus if the chord specifies a b9. The fifth mode of the Kumoi would be most related to our natural minor scale or Aeolian mode. The "Aeolian Kumoi" is spelled as C, Eb, F, Ab, Bb." The fourth mode of the Kumoi is similar to the "Aeolian Kumoi" except that it omits the 3^rd scale degree, spelling out as C, D, F, G, Ab. The absence of the 3^rd scale degree and presence of the 4^th scale degree resulted in me referring to this scale as the "Aeolian Sus Kumoi"

An octatonic scale beginning with a whole step also works well over a min7 chord. This scale spells out into C, D, Eb, F, F#, G#, A, B, C. The presence of so many altered tones gives the improviser a wide variety of chromaticism to work with in their passages.

There are an infinite amount of possibilities, as you can apply any mode to different scale degrees to produce completely different colors and highlight different chord tones. A great place to start is realizing which modes line up directly on the tonic, such as all the ones listed above, and then begin to venture into modes off of different scale degrees.

Or you can just cop out and use the good old Blues scale.

But I won't spell that one out for you.