Improvisation enhances musicianship by opening up your ears and teaching you how your instrument functions, fundamentally changing how you play music.

In this advanced lesson, I will explore contemporary sounds and start with consonant sonorities using a progression in E major, which includes F# minor 7, A, and B7 chords.

Within E major, there are three pentatonic major scales: E major pentatonic, A major pentatonic, and B major pentatonic, each emphasizing different notes while remaining consonant.

As I improvise over the chord progression, I will focus on one pentatonic scale at a time to highlight different aspects of the E major scale, creating varied flavors while staying within consonance.

To achieve a contemporary color while remaining in E major, I will briefly explore the modes, starting with the Ionian mode and moving through Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian modes.

When improvising, I often focus on the Dorian, Lydian, and Mixolydian modes, as they frequently arise in my teaching of improvisation.

I will demonstrate how to use the B half-whole diminished scale, an octatonic scale created by alternating half and whole steps, to create outside sonorities over the B7 chord while resolving back to F# minor. In jazz, over the B7 chord, we have a variety of altered tones including the root, flat nine, sharp nine, major third, sharp eleven, and flat five, which create tension before resolving back to the F sharp minor chord.

The altered dominant scale, also known as the superlocrian mode, is derived from the melodic minor scale and is used to achieve a unique harmonic color in improvisation.

In jazz and pop improvisation, the melodic minor scale retains its raised sixth and seventh degrees when descending, unlike classical theory which often lowers them.

The C sharp super locrian scale, which is the seventh mode of D melodic minor, contains many altered tones, making it suitable for creating an altered sound in improvisation.

When superimposing the altered scale over a chord progression, it can create an outside sound that still resolves nicely back to the original chord, enhancing the musical expression.

Using C major pentatonic over the B7 chord can introduce interesting altered sounds, as it incorporates notes from the altered dominant scale while maintaining a coherent musical idea.

Improvisation enhances musicianship by opening up your ears and deepening your understanding of how your instrument functions, leading to a more immediate relationship with the music you create.