Part 4 gave you the minor blues: minor sevenths on the i and the iv, a ♭VI7 near the end, and a dominant V7. The minor pentatonic works over all of it, as it always does. This lesson is about the two notes you can add to it, and why the choice between them changes the whole color.
Natural minor: the ♭6, bar by bar
F leans onto E over Am7 F leans onto E over Am7 F leans onto E over Am7 F leans onto E over Am7 F rests over Dm7 F rests over Dm7 F leans onto E over Am7 F leans onto E over Am7 F rests over F7 F leans onto E over E7 F leans onto E over Am7 F leans onto E over E7
Read the row: it leans onto E over Am7, rests over Dm7, rests over F7 and leans onto E over E7. A filled disc is a note you can stop on and a tick under it leans onto the note below.
Add the ♭6 and you are playing natural minor. Read the row: it rests over the iv and over the ♭VI, because both of those chords contain it, and it leans onto the fifth over the i and over the V. It is a note that belongs to the sad end of the form and pulls downward everywhere else.
Dorian: the natural sixth, the same bars
F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ leans onto F over Dm7 F♯ leans onto F over Dm7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ leans onto F over F7 F♯ passes through over E7 F♯ passes through over Am7 F♯ passes through over E7
Read the row: it passes through over Am7, leans onto F over Dm7, leans onto F over F7 and passes through over E7. A smaller one passes through and a tick under it leans onto the note below.
Raise that note a semitone and you are playing dorian. Now it leans against the iv and the ♭VI instead of resting on them, and passes everywhere else. It is brighter and less settled, which is exactly why players reach for it: it keeps the minor blues from sounding like a lament.
The V chord takes them both back
The ♭7, and what the V does to it
G rests over Am7 G rests over Am7 G rests over Am7 G rests over Am7 G passes through over Dm7 G passes through over Dm7 G rests over Am7 G rests over Am7 G passes through over F7 G bends up over E7 G rests over Am7 G bends up over E7
Read the row: it rests over Am7, passes through over Dm7, passes through over F7 and bends up over E7. A filled disc is a note you can stop on, a smaller one passes through and a tick over it bends up into the note above.
Whichever sixth you choose, the ♭7 behaves the same way — and over the V7 it becomes a blue note again. The chord brings a G♯ and your G sits a semitone under it, which is the same push you learned over the I chord in Part 2, arriving in the last line of a minor blues. Bend it there and the form turns round on it.
This lesson was drafted with the help of AI, so it may contain a mistake. Its diagrams are drawn by Everyfret’s own software. How Everyfret is made