With some of the great Melodic minor sounds like Lydian dominant and altered dominants, it is difficult to find arpeggios that really work, especially if you only check out the diatonic arpeggios.
In this video, I am going to show you some arpeggios that you can use that really nails the sound of these chords and adds some beautiful colors. And once you get started using them here you will discover how they also great in some other places.
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This video is going over 10 Lydian Dominant Guitar Licks each one with a different arpeggio that you can add to your own vocabulary. I will also first cover what common chord progressions have Lydian Dominant chords, and some solid Lydian b7 chord voicings.
Some of the arpeggios that I cover are sus4 triads, quartal harmony and some non diatonic melodic minor arpeggios. There are many great options for getting some new sounds over these chords.
Lydian Dominant Scale
The first thing to cover is what the Lydian Dominant scale is. All the examples in this article are using a G7(#11). The scale is a mode of the melodic minor scale found on the IV. This means that G lydian b7 is D melodic minor from G to G. The scale is shown here below:
3 Lydian Dominant Progressions
There are three common lydian dominant progressions. The Tritone Substitute, the backdoor dominant and the V of V in a major key.
Below all three are shown.
First the G7 is the tritone substitue of Db7 in a II V I in Gb major.
The second example in that line is a IV bVII I in A major where G7 is the backdoor dominant or bVII.
G7(#11) Chord Voicings
Below are some common and playable voicings for a G7(#11) that all fit in the G Lydian b7 sound.
Lick 1 – DmMaj7 Arpeggio
The first example is using the minor melodic connection by using a DmMaj7 arpeggio in the line. This also fits with the context since it is a G7 that is resolving as a backdoor dominant up to Amaj7. The arpeggio on the Amaj7 is the top part of a Herbie Hancock Arpeggio
Lick 2 – F augmented Triad
The F augmented triad is also an integral part of the G lydian b7 or D melodic minor. In this example the G7 is again resolving to Amaj7 and the F augmented arpeggio is used in the 2nd half of the bar.
Lick 3 – Fmaj7(#5) arpeggio
This example is using the G7 as a tritone substitute in a II V I in Gb major.
The G7 line is a combination of two arpeggios, first the Bø which is the arpeggio from the 3rd of the G7. This nicely leads into an Fmaj7(#5) arpeggio that really spells out the extensions of the G lydian dominant with the #11(C#) and 13(E)
Lick 4 – A7 arpeggio
This example is a longer line on a G7 resolving as a backdoor dominant back to Amaj7.
The first part of the G7 line is really build around a Dm triad arpeggio and this is followed by two arpeggios first a descending A7 and then an ascending Bø that resolves to the maj7th(G#) of Amaj7.
Lick 5 – Gsus(#4)
If you explore the diatonic sus4 triads in D melodic minor you will come across this great sounding arpeggio: Gsus#4. This sound is very distinct and as you can hear it is a great candidate for a G lydian b7 sound.
The example starts with a chromatic enclosure, then a Dm melody and from there continues with a Gsus(#4) arpeggio resolving to Amaj7.
Lick 6 – A(add9) or A major Coltrane Pattern
The first part of this line is an Fmaj(#5) followed by a Dm melodic scale run. From here it continues with an A Coltrane Pattern that is repeated in the octave and finally resolves to the 7th(/F) of Gbmaj7.
Lick 7 – G7(b5)
The G7(b5) arpeggio is a clear candidate for the Lydian sound since the arpeggio is contains the #11 (or b5). Notice how G7(b5) is not strictly a diatonic arpeggio in D melodic minor.
In this example I am using G7 as a tritone substitute in Gb major again.
The G7b5 is played as a pattern and the entire bar is filled up by this pattern.
Lick 8 – A7(#5)
The A7(#5) is one of my favourite arpeggios in melodic minor, and in fact there are two dom7th(#5) arpeggios in there.
This example is using a IV bVII I progression in A major where the G7 is the bVII. The entire line on the G7 is taken up with an ascending A7(#5) arpeggio and resolves via the F down to the 5th(E) of Amaj7.
Lick 9 – C#7(#5)
The other Dom7(#5) arpeggio is the C#7(#5). In this example I amusing that in a line where the G7 is a tritone substitute for Db7 in Gb major.
Again the arpeggio is clear enough to be the only thing I am using on the G7.
Lick 10 – G major b5
The forgotten triad or G major b5 is also a good arpeggio to get the Lydian b7 sound across. In this example I am combining it with first a Dm triad then the G(b5) arpeggio and then I resolve that to an Amaj7.
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In the Lydian dominant sound you can access a lot of cool sounds and you can put it to use in modal situations, blues, tritone subs and IV minor chords. This video will give you some new ideas and non diatonic arpeggio structures to add to your Lydian dominant ideas. I will use 3 Lydian Dominant Guitar Licks to demonstrate how great the arpeggios work in the context of this sound!
You can use the Lydian Dominant Scale as refreshing and surprising sounds besides the fact that you need for some of the chord progressions you will keep running into in jazz standards and originals.
The Scale and the chord
All the examples in this lesson are using an A7(#11) as the Lydian dominant. The Lydian dominant scale that goes with this chord is the 4th degree of the E melodic minor scale as shown here below:
The first Lydian dominant example – The Gmaj7(b5)
The first example is using two non diatonic arpeggios and a triad pair.
The diatonic arpeggios in E melodic minor are EmMaj7, F#m7, Gmaj7(#5) A7, B7, C#m7b5 and D#m7(b5). Basically the arpeggios you get by stacking 3rds in the scale.
But besides those you can also construct other chords in the scale. One of those is the Gmaj7(b5) which is what I use as the first 4 notes of this example. From there it continues with another non diatonic arpeggio: the A7(b5). After this I continue with a very common triad pair with A and B major triads. This is a very common triad pair to use for melodic minor. The triads are played in 2nd inversion.
Crazy arpeggio ideas – Drop2 and diatonic sus4 arpeggios
The first arpeggio in the second example is using a Drop2 version of the A7(b5) arpeggio. The line continues with a Bsus4 triad.
The combination of Bsus4 and A7(b5) voicing works as one large arpeggio structure. If you want to learn more of this approach you can do so here: Crazy Arpeggios
From the Bsus4 arpeggio the melody continues by moving up to the next diatonic sus4 triad: Asus#4.
The last part of the line is coming out of a G augmented triad idea.
Using them as Tritone dominants or as an altered chord
The previous example resolves to a D#, which you can directly interpret as an Eb, the 5th in Abmaj7. It is important to keep in mind that these lines can be used as tritone dominants or altered scale ideas as well.
Sweeping maj7#5 arpeggios and add some Quartal ideas!
A great arpeggio for the Lydian dominant sound is the maj7#5 arpeggio. For an A7(#11) this is a Gmaj7#5, which I am using as the opening statement in the 3rd example. From here the line continues with an F#m7 arpeggio.
The 2nd bar is combining two Quartal arpeggios. First from G that you might recognize as an A7(13) chord. From here it continues with the one from C#. Together these two spell out an A7(9,13) sound.
The line ends on a D#. This is also an example of a line that would make a great Eb7alt or tritone guitar lick.
Summing it up
I hope you can use these ideas with some non diatonic arpeggios and quartal arpeggio ideas to expand on your own Lydian dominant vocabulary!
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The dom7th(b5) chord is a great sound to use in your solo. Since it isn’t really diatonic to any scale then we often forget to use it as a dominant arpeggio. In this video I am going to demonstrate 5 great ways to use this arpeggio on different chord types.
Here you will learn how it works for several chords and several sounds like the altered scale, the diminished scale and a few more melodic minor sounds!
Lydian Dominant
The Lydian dominant is a dominant with a #11. One way of playing that chord is to play it as a dom7th(b5).
In the first example I am using the arpeggio on a bVII dominant which is one of the very common Lydian dominants. The progression I am using is in the key of C major and it is a IV IVm I type progression.
On the bVII I am using Lydian dominant scale which is F minor melodic over a Bb7 in the key of C.
The scale is shown in example 1:
The Bb7(b5) arpeggio in this position could be played like this:
The progression in C is Fmaj7, Bb7 to Cmaj7. The line on the Fmaj7 is first a chromatic run from E to G and then a line based on the arpeggio from the 3rd of Fmaj7: Am7. The line continues to the Bb7 where it ascends from Bb to Bb in the arpeggio and via the Ab and F resolves to the 5th(G) of Cmaj7.
Dominant from the diminished scale
The diminished scale also contains the arpeggio. In this example I am using a II V I in C and since the dominant is a G7 we have a G7(b5) available.
Notice that the G7(b5): G B Db F is the same as a Db7(b5): Db F G B
The Diminished scale that fits on the G7 is shown here below:
The G7(b5) (or Db7(b5) arpeggio in this position could be played as shown in example 5:
The line on the Dm7 is in this example starting with a trill on the 3rd and then continues up an Fmaj7 arpeggio. From the E it descends down to the b5 of G7 and continues up the arpeggio to B. From the B it continues with an Ab and an E to spell out a first inversion E major triad. The line then resolves to the 9th(D) of Cmajor.
The dominant sound of a G7 from the diminished scale could be written as a G7(13b9b5). The line spells out this sound with the G7(b5) combined with the E major triad. E major over a G yields E(13), G#(=Ab, b9) and B(3).
Altered Dominant
If we look at G altered. G Ab Bb B Db Eb F G, you can see that it is possible to construct a G7(b5): G B Db F. This means that the G altered dominant is also a great place to put this arpeggio to use.
The G altered (or Ab melodic minor scale) is shown in example 7:
The Arpeggio in this position could be the same as in the previous line, shown in example 5.
The II V I line with the altered dominant is making use of an Fmaj7 shell voicing followed by a chromatic pasing note and an chromatic enclosure resolving on the 3rd(B) of G7.
On the G7 the line is the ascending G7(b5) arpeggio from B to B. This is followed up by a 2nd inversion Eb major triad.The combination of the G7(b5) and the Eb major triad spells out a G7(b5b13#9) in total which is a great combo for an altered dominant.
Tonic minor
From the previous example we know that the Melodic minor scale contains a dom7th(b5). One place where we can use this is on a tonic minor chord. In this example I am using an F7(b5) arpeggio (as shown in example 9) over a Cm6 chord.
The line starts with a small melody using an augmented triad followed up with a scale fragment. In the second bar the line is a F7(b5) (or B7(b5)) played in a sequence. It resolves to the Maj7(B) of C.
The Lydian Augmented or Lydian #5 sound
Another sound that we can apply the arpeggio to is the Lydian Augmented sound found in melodic minor. In this case I am using it on a Cmaj7(#5).
The scale that fits on this is A melodic minor:
The D7(b5)/G#7(b5) arpeggio that is found in this scale could be played like this:
The way I am using the Lydian Augmented chord in the progression is a as a suspension of the tonic. This means that the progression is a II V I, but the I is suspended by first a Imaj7(#5) and later resolved to Imaj7.
The Dm7 line consistst of an Am7 and an F major triad. On the G7 I am using a strict C major or G mixolydian sound. This yields a melody that spells out a fairly basic G7 sound. This is first resolved to a Cmaj7#5 where the line consists purely of a D7(b5) arpeggio that then resolves to the 5th(G) of Cmaj7.
Other places where you can experiment with the dom7th(b5)
The arpeggios that are found in scales but not build by stacking 3rds can be a very useful way to introduce specific sounds. The Dom7th(b5) sound is also great if you have a dominant for an extended period of time. This happens in the beginning of a Blues or the Bridge of a Rhythm Changes.
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You can also download the PDF of my examples here:
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions for topics or how I can make the lessons better then please let me know. Leave a comment on the video or send me an e-mail. That is the best way for me to improve my lessons and make them fit what you are searching for.
