Scales › altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor)

altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor) scale

maximum altered tension

altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor) on the guitar: the fretboard diagram

Here is the altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor) scale laid out across the whole neck, from fret 0 to fret 15. The guide tones (3rd and 7th) are highlighted — they're what makes the scale's color sing. Use the key selector above to shift the shape along the neck and find the positions in your key.

What color?

The scale of every dominant alteration: b9, #9, b5 and #5 gathered around a 3 and a b7. Maximum tension, you launch it on the V7 just before the resolution for the most friction before settling.

Origin & history

The seventh mode of the melodic minor, theorized and named by 20th-century jazz pedagogy. Placed over a dominant, it alters all of its extensions (♭9, ♯9, ♯11, ♭13) for maximum tension just before the resolution — hence its name. It is the vocabulary of bebop and post-bop solos over dominants.

Which chords to play it on?

The jazz consensus (Aebersold) recommends it on:

Sibling modes

The altered (super-Locrian, 7th mode of melodic minor) scale is one of the modes of the melodic minor : it shares exactly the same notes as the modes below, but built on a different degree of the parent scale (melodic minor).

Try it in a real chart

Paste a chord chart into the tool: Pentania tells you, chord by chord, when this scale fits — and what other colors are open to you. Open the tool →