The ONLY 2 Dominant Scales You Need (Keep It Simple!)

Does Jazz guitar feel like a competition about who knows the most scales? You only need 2 dominant scales for 95% of Jazz, and once I figured this out, I could finally stop practicing scales and actually focus on getting better.

So in this video, I’ll show you the 2 scales I have used to help 100s of my students level up their jazz playing and how you can use them to play real jazz solos—without getting stuck in endless scale exercises.

Besides playing better solos, a great bonus with this approach is that it also helps you instantly pick the right scale in the chord progression, without needing a degree in music theory.

I’ll show you later in the video.

Just 2 Sounds

When Joe Diorio asked Wes Montgomery what scales he played on a II V I, Wes gave him this, almost Yoda-like answer, but it nails the point.

Joe: “Wes, when you think of Dm G7 C, what do you think?

Wes: “Man It’s A Sound”

And that is also how you want to split your scale choices: two basic sounds.

Major and minor.

You probably know that I am not a huge fan of modes. This is a perfect example—complicated names and endless interval recipes just get in the way.

It’s way easier to ask: does it sound major, or does it sound minor? You already know those two sounds.

And that covers 95% of all dominant chords: they’re either in a major or a minor context.

Let’s start with major!

The Major Breakthrough

You know what’s great? Soloing over a dominant chord is not as mysterious as you might think: A dominant from major is a chord you already know, in a scale you also already know. And as I will explain in a bit, This is the dominant sound you will come across almost all the time.

Take C major as an example, you’ve got these diatonic chords:

The dominant chord—G7—is just the fifth chord in the scale.

You rely on the major scale for all sorts of chords, so it makes sense to learn its diatonic arpeggios—they’re what help you truly connect with each chord you play, and as you, will see, incredibly useful for a LOT of solo material.

Here’s a quick exercise to show you what I mean:

Now, the main goal is to sound great over G7. You don’t want to just run up and down the scale like a robot. There are actually four arpeggios you can use, and I’ll show you all of them—plus some classic jazz licks from famous artists along the way.

Let’s start with the obvious one: the G7 arpeggio.

It is maybe a bit weird, but the G7 arpeggio isn’t even the most popular arpeggio choice in bebop! Some of the other arpeggios are actually used much more often.

To make your lines really flow, you want to mix the arpeggio with scale notes and even some chromatic notes—like this:

So you have the leading note to the 3rd, B in the middle of the arpeggio and the walk up to the resolution to E on the Cmaj7 which is anticipated on the 4& with a short tail into the Cmaj7. Stuff like that is what makes it Bebop.

Next up: move up to the 3rd of G7,

which is B. Here, you get a B half-diminished (Bø) arpeggio:

The arpeggio from the 3rd of a dominant is used A LOT. Here’s a great George Benson line that I transposed from F, he plays it over Billie’s bounce. This really demonstrates his Bebop roots as well; it could easily have been a Charlie Parker lick:

Here you have the Dm7 line, which is really just a Dm triad with a lot of chromatic leading notes and simple enclosures. But that is for another video.

The Bø comes in right on the G7

and transitions into a Charlie Parker lick that Barry Harris also often talked about.

Keep going up in the arpeggio, and you land on the 5th: D.

That gives you a Dm7 arpeggio.

Using the arpeggio of the II chord over the V is common both with Wes and Charlie Parker. Here’s a lick Charlie Parker used very often. It is transposed from F, and is a great chromatic phrase that shifts across the meter with groups of 3 notes:

Wes often used the arpeggio from the 5th as a way to get the 3rd of the dominant chord, but he also uses this type of phrase as a one-bar II V. Check out how it beautifully frames the 3rd of G7 on beat 3.

The final arpeggio is from the 7th of the chord, in this case, that is an Fmaj7.

This is what Barry talks about when he talks about the Arpeggio from the 7th.

And check out the great lines you can create with this:

The dominant in major is everywhere in jazz. These arpeggios and licks are your building blocks for: major key dominants, V of V in major, backdoor dominants, V of IV, jazz blues, and many more. And there’s an easy rule for picking which one to use—but first, let’s see how this works in minor.

A Minor Detail

You’ve already heard how the dominant chord works in the “major sound.”

The other flavor is the dominant chord in the “minor sound.”

To make this less abstract, try imagining or hearing a V chord in a minor song you already know.

Like the ending of the A-parts in Softly As In A Morning Sunrise:

The V chord in minor usually comes from the harmonic minor scale.

If we take Am as a key, then the dominant is E7, and the scale is A harmonic minor:

Just like with the major sound, it’s incredibly useful to know the diatonic chords and arpeggios from the harmonic minor scale. Like this:

To really get the flavor of this chord, let’s check out the extensions

If you look at the E7 and the extensions available you get an E7 with a b9 and a b13.

Try playing the chord with these notes to hear that tense, dramatic sound you’ll use in your solos:. And don’t forget that playing the chords of progressions you want to solo over helps you play stronger lines.

There are fewer common arpeggios for the minor sound, but the first to explore is the E7 arpeggio. (

And I’ll show you a secret non-diatonic one in a second.)

Another great option is to move up a third to G# diminished, which also adds the F, giving you a b9 on the dominant.

This sounds awesome in an E7 phrase, like this:

I’ll get to the last, secret arpeggio in a bit,

But first, here’s another cool trick: Use the diminished arpeggio as a “pivot arpeggio”

That means that you take the first note of the arpeggio, G#

And move that up an octave, adding a large, but melodic, interval skip:

And now you can play something like this, which sounds a lot more catchy:

The Secret Arpeggio

Now for the last arpeggio—this one isn’t strictly diatonic (it’s not just a stack of 3rds from the harmonic minor scale), but it absolutely nails the E7(b9, b13) sound.

Here’s how it works:

What do you need for the sound of an E7(b9,b13)?

You need the E7 which you can get with the guide tones: 3rd and 7th: G# and D,

And then you need the b9: F plus the b13 C.

If we put these together, starting from D, then you get:

D F G# C, and that is the same set of pitches as Dm7b5: D F Ab C.

This arpeggio is perfect for outlining the dominant chord in a minor key:

Now that you know how to create lines for both of these dominant sounds, here’s how to decide which one to use.

Where Does Each Dominant Fit?

Knowing when to use the major or minor dominant sound is actually pretty simple:

Stick with the major sound if the dominant chord resolves to a major chord—or doesn’t resolve at all (meaning it doesn’t move to a chord a fifth below). Like G7 to Cmaj7 or E7 to Am.

Most of the common progressions you’ve seen fall into this category. As you can see in the list

The rule for the minor sound is just as straightforward: use it when a dominant resolves to a minor chord, like V to i in minor, or maybe a secondary dominant going to II in major, so in C major, A7 to Dm7 means using D harmonic minor on A7.

At the start, keep things simple.

There are more sounds and scales to explore, but your best bet is to build a solid foundation you can actually use in your music. You can always add more flavors as you go!

Practice The Things That ACTUALLY Work!

Ask any pro jazz guitarist—the secret to leveling up is practicing the stuff that really makes a difference. Practical, focused practice is what gets results.

If you want to hear specific advice from legends like Wes Montgomery, check out this video. I’ll show you how to use their practice strategies so you can learn faster—and skip all the useless exercises.

Check it out!

Learn Jazz Make Music!

https://jenslarsen.nl/make-sure-you-practice-like-this-every-day-jazz-guitar/

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