Track 10 – B minor Mellow Groove Bm-F# 100 BPM Key of Bm 3:58 min
This is a cool mellow groove in the key of B minor. The chords are moving fairly slow and you have two full
measures on each chord. So this jam really lends itself to treating each chord as a separate event. Even though
there is an F# major chord in the progression, this jam has a real dark minor vibe to it. That tells me automatically
that major sounding lead elements will probably not work well. Analyzing the chords, we find a I minor chord (Bm),
going to a V major chord (F#). A minor key jam with a V major chord is the exception to the Minor Pentatonic rule
I spoke of earlier. This jam screams out Harmonic Minor over the V chord.
Exception:
When you have a jam with a I minor chord going to a V major chord you have to be careful. Even though we are
in minor key Minor Pentatonic & Blues would not sound great over that major V chord in these instances. That
scale won’t relate to that V major chord. So this jam is an example of the exception. Now if there were a lot more
chords in the progression and that major V chord didn’t not come up for a while then you may be able to play
Minor Pentatonic over the other chords and hang on it for a while, until that major V comes up, then switch or you
will be playing some sour notes over that V major chord.
To illustrate further in this jam the V chord is F#. That chord is made of an F#, C#, and Bb. In B Minor Pentatonic
the notes are B, D, E, F#, A. The b7 is an A note. So if you play that scale over the F# chord and you hold on that
A note over the F# chord there will be a rub as the F# chord has Bb note - not so pleasing to the ear. Another less
than ideal note is if you play that root note B or D over the F# chord as again the F# would rather hear resolution
to the Bb note or C# note as both notes are in an F# chord.
Treat each chord like a separate event: For this jam treating each chord as a separate event is the way to go.
- Over the Bm chord try B Minor Pentatonic & Blues, B Aeolian, B Dorian, or B Minor arpeggios
- Over the F# chord try B Harmonic Minor – Harmonic Minor sounds awesome over the V chord in a minor key
jam. (Note – use B Harmonic Minor over the F# chord, not F# Harmonic Minor)
KEY POINT: As soon as you see a V major chord in a minor key jam then BAM! – hit the
V major with Harmonic Minor.- Try B Aeolian over the Bm chord then switch to B Harmonic Minor over the F# chord and you will be wowed!
There is only one note difference between the two scales so this may be the easiest avenue for you to try at first.
Remember, the keynote in the Harmonic Minor Scale is the major 7th – it’s located one half step behind the root.
You get great tension and release playing that 7th and then going up a half step resolving to the root. Learn more
about the Harmonic Minor scale on pages 8 4 - 85.