I think perhpaps one of the coolest things you can do to hip up the sound of a major chord...or vamp. Is to play the Lydian Augmented scale. It is as follows CDEF#G#ABC You couldn't play it over a run of the mill major seven voicing. If you drop the 5th of any major voicing you have down a half step you get a Lydain chord. Ambiguous major. Play that scale over it.
That or play a minor pentatonic a half step down from the root of a major chord or up a major third.
Example CMaj7.....B-Pent or E-Pent. You won't get the #5 here; but it is still hip.
Oh and SING the scale over the chord before you go just screwing around with it. Ear training is crucial and without it you pissing in the wind and running patterns.
Originally posted by Jazzfingers19: I think perhpaps one of the coolest things you can do to hip up the sound of a major chord...or vamp. Is to play the Lydian Augmented scale. It is as follows CDEF#G#ABC You couldn't play it over a run of the mill major seven voicing. If you drop the 5th of any major voicing you have down a half step you get a Lydain chord. Ambiguous major. Play that scale over it.
That or play a minor pentatonic a half step down from the root of a major chord or up a major third.
Example CMaj7.....B-Pent or E-Pent. You won't get the #5 here; but it is still hip.
Which is an A melodic minor scale just starting on the 3rd for you theory guys. Sounds great over any D alt/dom chord functioning as a V chord.
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