Many thanks to amazing pianist Alex Hutton who equipped with his blackboard took us through the dominant seven heavy compositions:
“Just in Time” by Jule Styne
“Doxy” by Sonny Rollins
Ever with hope in his heart, Alex helps up handle compositions containing sequences of dominant seventh, using a number of techniques
- Arpeggio/scales
- Stacked thirds
- Triad pairs
- Domininant Bebop scale
- Pentatonics
The dominant bebop scale (mixolydian with an extra major 7) was shown as a connecting device usually descending and always as a scalar fragment rather than a pick and mix that might be used with other scales.
Pentatonics were a particularly interesting sound reminiscent of McCoy Tyner although (apparently) Alex was showing sixth based ones whereas McCoy would be using sevenths. Suggestions for the pentatonic scales were:
Am6: 1 b2 3 5 7
D7: 1 2 3 5 b7
D7b9: 1 b2 3 5 b7
As with all these things, they sound amazing in the hands of a master, less so in mine. Back to the shed.