Music and Musicians Exchange - Making sense of melodic minor to write melody

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Making sense of melodic minor to write melody

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Topic: Making sense of melodic minor to write melody

Posted By: 4thGenTrombone
Subject: Making sense of melodic minor to write melody
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2021 at 4:40am

There are no doubt quite a few jazz standards that largely use the melodic minor scale or the bebop deviation,

and I'm looking for inspiration. To be fair, I can only think of two - Nature Boy, and in a broader context, Yesterday.

Typical melodic minor is a bit of a musical blind spot for me because of how close to major it is, despite that all

important flat 3rd. The typical bleakness of a minor tonality doesn't seem to come across to me when I play the

scale. What melodic motions, outside arpeggios based on the crucial chords, and drifting back to the minor 3rd,

might help in writing gloomy noir-like melodies?

Replies:

Posted By: js
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2021 at 5:06am

If you are looking for melodic minor melodies, you will find way more in the world of classical music, particularly Russian music in the late 19th century, or the music of Chopin. Also JS Bach, for instance the "Bouree" melody that was adopted by Ian Anderson

As for jazz, "My Funny Valentine" is in melodic minor for some bars. As for the scale's difference from the major scale you mentioned, it has a minor 6th and minor 7th in its descending form.

Posted By: js
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2021 at 5:08am

I moved this to The Musicians Exchange.

Posted By: js
Date Posted: 03 Jun 2021 at 7:42am

"Solar" is sort of in a melodic minor scale, but not entirely.