Walking dominant, in a minor key.

NylonDave

In major most people know the four chord walk that goes like this (in F)

C,Ddim(or Dm7),Ebdim,C7/E.

And you can walk it backwards and it sounds great.
It works just perfect in blues and in a major key the bluesiness normally works from the five to the one or the one to the four.

But if you are playing an old tune in a minor key where the harmony is based on minor scales you might find that those moves are kind of distracting because they take you out of the tonal intent of the melody.

Here are two options to get a nice four chord walk over a dominant that will avoid this clash of style.

Lets say we are in Gm.

to walk from root position D7 to it's first inversion

D7
Am7b5/Eb
Edim
D7/Fsharp (flat nine or flat five may or may not sound here according to taste, style and intent.

That takes away the bluesiness for a few reasons, mostly because it brings out the quality of the harmonic and melodic minor scale instead of the swing blues scale. Firstly it emphasises the flat nine (Eb in this case) and secondly because it removes the sound of a diminished seventh chord containing the tonic resolving to the minor tonic.


Another way of walking dominants in a minor key is to work backwards from the second inversion..

D7/A
G dim
Am7b5/G
D7/Fsharp

Of course these aren't the only options and tastes vary. There are a lot of theoretical reasons why one might choose these in a minor key as opposed to other options which I might speculate on but wont.

If anyone else has found the blues clichés chord walks unsatisfactory in minor keys I thought it might be nice to share some options. I know that believing something is theoretically right can often cause us to ignore our ears and musical instincts. The more options we have to solve harmonic problems the less likely we are to jar both the listener's ear and our own, especially at slow tempos.

Sorry, I don't do tab. I genuinely do not believe that spoon feeding adults is actually respectful. I had to look and listen for these and not in a book and certainly not from tab. It is a good way to learn. Ear and theory together, no spoon. And if I can do it with a very ordinary and slow ear so can anyone who is prepared to get stuck in and throw down their bib.

D.

Bones

Interesting topic. How would you walk UP from D7/A?

thanks

NylonDave

Hi Bones I have just had a few goes and rather think I might avoid doing that if I were trying to resolve to Gm. At least I cant make the chord progression above sound convincing without a bass player.

The line in the voice starting on the fifth (A on D7) is static for the first two chords and lacks a strong feeling of resolution ( the line in that voice is A A Bb C to D for Gm) because there are no semitones approaching the D, and the tonic sound is much lest 'resolvey' in second inversion.

I would use it without hesitation if I were trying to spool out the sound of D7 for several bars but would probably not try and take the harmony home with that move.

I am real busy the next few days but I will try another few progressions going fifth to fifth to see what I can come up with but to be honest I avoided that move because of the weakness of the fifth to fifth bass movement.

Maybe someone else has an elegant solution that can slot into minor tunes without causing raised eyebrows. Ascending resolutions are trickier in general.

Actually I bet if I had the time and checked Micheals wonderful Gypsy rhythm book there would be a few pages with the answer on them.

D.

Bones

Ok yes that all makes sense. I'll play around with that and also in a major key and see what sounds cool. thx and have fun at the gig thurs.