How can I make today's practice really worthwhile?

 Okay, here I am stuck at home. 

I have a choice, I can either write ten blog posts or I can do some practice on either the violin or the double bass.

I know what I will practise and it doesn't matter which instrument I choose.

It's something I learnt many years ago. It's time for a bit of a refresher.

On this?

Or this?

No, I won't be using the bagpipes. Let's keep this serious.

Okay, as you know, there are five main chord types in Western music - major, minor, dominant 7th., augmented and diminished. Today I've decided to work on dominant 7ths. For those new to music theory, let's look at the dominant 7th. chord first. It is basically a major chord with a minor 7th. This chord is built off the 5th. note in a major scale. It only comes off the 5th. note so it has a unique sound that hints that it might be moving to the chord from the first note - a major 7th. chord.

So, let's look at C major, a key with no sharps or flats - C D E F G A B C.

Cmaj7 is the I chord (C E G B) - see how it's built up in thirds (C, skip D, add E / E, skip F, add G / etc.) - and G7 is the V chord (G B D F).

There are three ways that I like to play over a dominant 7th. chord. Remember that I could just use the notes G A B C D E F G (just C major notes starting on the fifth note - G). Doing this can make me use 'safe' note choices. It also makes it easy to start on the root note - boring.

One choice I like, especially over a minor progression (Dm7b5   G7b9    Cm6), is to use a diminished chord starting on the flat 9 (Ab B D F). If it's a major progression, I like to use a rising melodic minor scale. If the next chord, after G7 is not the I chord (Cmaj7), I would use D E F G A B C# D. Firstly, this gets me away from banging out the G and helps me towards more interesting note choices. That C# is a #4 or a #11 (same thing sound wise) and is a much loved sound by jazz musicians. If G7 is moving directly to Cmaj7, I would use Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F G Ab. This, again, is a melodic minor scale (rising version) and it's really just a major scale with a minor third (Ab - Cb), but it automatically gives you some interesting notes. Eg. Ab = b9, Cb (B) = #9. What more could you want to sound jazzy? 

So, in those last two examples, D is the rising melodic minor starting on the 5th. degree of the scale and Ab is the rising melodic minor starting a semitone up from the root. Easy really.

Okay, once you've sorted the scales, do some practice [a backing track can be very helpful here] and USE YOUR EARS.

Never forget that your ears are the most important thing. Rhythms are very important too. Listen to some jazz music.

Buonafortuna.