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Jazz Studies With Bill Harrison: Lesson 9 – Using Melodic Minor on the ii/V/i
The last two lessons I’ve presented in Bass Musician Magazine have hopefully made it clear that you can use the harmonic minor scale for the ii/V/i cadence. One of the benefits of harmonic minor is that you can use the same scale form for all three chords, the same way that we use the major scale to play through the major ii/V/I.
Click to Download: Using the Melodic Minor
As your ears grow more sophisticated, it’s very likely that you’ll want to expand your harmonic/melodic palette to include some of the sounds that musicians have made part of the jazz language in the last few decades. One of the most interesting devices you can learn to use is the melodic minor scale.
Construct melodic minor by simply flatting the third degree of the major scale. Another way to think of it is as a minor scale with both a major 6th and major 7th. * So D melodic minor (to be consistent with the key of our last two lessons) is spelled D E F G A B C#. (Fig. 1) This scale has a lot of cool applications on a variety of chord types, including some altered dominants and the wily M7#5. But let’s stick to our main task, using the sound of the melodic minor on the minor ii/V/i cadence.
Here’s the chord progression: E-7(b5) / A7alt / D-(M7) It turns out that only the tonic chord (spelled D F A C#) exists within the D melodic minor scale. Neither of the other two chords can be extracted from that scale (there’s no Bb, for one thing). If we really want to use melodic minor as our harmonic basis for this progression, we will have to figure out which melodic minor scale contains each of these chords.
If we were still using the major scale system, E-7(b5) (E G Bb D) would shout locrian, the 7th mode in the key of F: E F G A Bb C D. Do you see how the scale tones fill in the missing spaces between the chord tones? By making one small change in these “in-between” notes we’ll be able to generate a melodic minor sound that embraces E-7(b5). If we raise the F natural one half step to F#, we create this scale; E F# G A Bb C D. With some quick calculating, we can see that this “locrian #2” scale is the 6th mode of G melodic minor. (Fig. 2)
What about this A7alt chord? The designation “alt” is short for altered, and it generally translates to any dominant chord containing both the 5th and 9th degrees altered (b5 and/or #5 AND b9 and/or #9). These sounds are quite common in contemporary jazz, and our old friend mixolydian doesn’t work at all with these altered intervals. Melodic minor to the rescue!
Let’s construct a dominant type scale that includes ALL those altered 5ths and 9ths starting on the root A (keeping in mind that dominant chords are defined by the combination of M3 and m7):
A Bb C C# Eb F G (root, b9, #9, M3, b5, #5, m7). This scale is a thing of beauty. The first half alternates between half and whole steps while the second half contains all whole steps. This scale goes by a few names, most commonly the altered or diminished/whole tone scale. This scale is also the 7th mode of the Bb melodic minor. (Fig. 3)
So the chord/scale matchups for this ii/V/i go like this:
E-7(b5) – G melodic minor.
A7alt – Bb melodic minor.
D-(M7) – D melodic minor.
But what does this mean for us when we’re constructing walking bass lines? As long as you have at least 4 beats for each chord you can make good use of some of the spiced up flavors of the melodic minor. The F# from the G melodic minor is a delightful passing tone on the E-7(b5), for instance. The presence of the altered 5ths and 9ths on the A7alt are also noteworthy (pun intended). And the inclusion of the B natural on the D-(M7) is a welcome change from Bb, the flatted 6th. See Fig. 4 for some examples of walking lines that use the colors of the melodic minor.
The uses of melodic minor are well documented in recordings and books. Check out pianist Mark Levine’s excellent Jazz Theory in this regard. Start incorporating these sounds into your lines and you will discover some pathways through these changes that might not occur to you otherwise.
* Note that the only difference between natural, melodic, harmonic and dorian minor scales is whether the 6th and 7th degrees of each scale are major or minor.
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Photo: Self-portrait by Melissa Auf Der Maur
Melissa Auf Der Maur is a Canadian bassist who played with Tinker, Hole, and The Smashing Pumpkins. She released her own work and is a photographer with photos published in Nylon, Bust, and National Geographic. She released her ‘90s Rock Memoir “Even The Good Girls Will Cry” on 17 March 2026.
KB: Did you always want to be a singer-musician growing up?
I’ve played music my whole life. In school, I played trumpet and sang in a children’s choir, so music was always within me. My mother was the first female disc jockey on the Montreal airwaves; her record collection played a huge role in my inspiration and love of music.
KB: When did you start playing bass, and why this instrument?
When I was 19, the early 90s music explosion began to percolate in tiny clubs around the world. I was lucky to be a ticket girl at Montreal’s underground music club. In one year, I saw Hole, Sonic Youth, Smashing Pumpkins, White Zombie, and The Breeders – all had female bass players. That’s when the seed was planted. By the age of 22, I was the bass player of Hole.
KB: Which brands of basses have you used in your career, and which one are you using now?
The first bass that I learned on was a vintage Squier Precision. Hole was sponsored by Fender guitars, so I upgraded to Fender Custom Shop Precisions. That is all I play, but I have a cool vintage 8-string Greco that I use on recordings to thicken up guitar parts.
KB: What equipment do you use or have you used with your basses?
Ampeg SVT amps and cabinets, a couple of Sans-Amp pedals, and that is it.
KB: How did you become a member of Hole, and what is your fondest memory of that time?
Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins was helping scout a replacement for (RIP) Kristen Pfaff, Hole’s bass player. My band, Tinker, opened for them on the Siamese Dream tour, so Billy had seen me play and could vouch for me. Courtney trusted her talented friend, and that was it. I initially said “no thank you” due to my commitment to my photographic studies and the drama and chaos surrounding the band during the “Live Through This” album release. Courtney took it as a good sign that I said no, so convinced me to reconsider, and soon after, I accepted their invitation, in the name of helping put females in the male-dominated landscape of rock music. My fondest memory is every show we played as a mostly female band, symbolizing what a woman could do in a rock band. Every show had a purpose: get more women to play music.
KB: You are a photographer as well. What makes a great picture? Do you shoot in color or b/w?
I started shooting photographs at age 15. Initially only shot black & white and worked in the art school darkroom. In university, I took a color photography course, and shifted mostly and forever to that, because it was easier to process film on the road when I joined a rock band. I experimented with many cameras, point and shoots, manual, polaroids, medium format, and vintage finds. The trick to a good photograph is to shoot many and all the time – the magic is in the edit and selection process.
KB: Are there artists you would love to collaborate with or wish you had?
??I’ve been lucky to collaborate with some of my favorite musicians in my career. I would still love to collaborate with a new generation heavy electronic artist on an analog bass, heavy electronic drums, and synths collaboration project. Take me out of my usual zone, merging the past and future: my love of 80s dark new wave and new artists exploring that genre. It was very futuristic back then, and we are now, after all, living in the future. I am in the mood to play bass to heavy beats I want to dance to.
KB: What are your 7 favorite bass lines in music across all genres? And why these 7?
“Mountain Song” – Jane’s Addiction (love a rambling, rolling bass line – feels like the ocean waves)
“Black Top – Helmet” (was the first bass line I taught myself)
“Gold Dust Woman” – Hole from “The Crow 2” Soundtrack (it was my first bass line contribution to the band)
“Get Ready” – The Temptations (Motown just feels so good, because of the bass)
“Lucretia My Reflection” – Sisters of Mercy (makes me want to hit the dance floor and play bass simultaneously)
“Be My Druidess” – Type O Negative (full chord bass playing at its best by iconic, demonic, Peter Steele, RIP)
“Romantic Rights” – Death from Above (1979 – unique distorted overdriven tone, combined dance rhythm and melodic intelligence, all in one shot – also! Shout out to a bass & drum only band, which is awesome, and we should have more of, but the bass player needs to be a killer to fill that role.
KB: What are you currently up to?
Releasing my ‘90s Rock Memoir “EVEN THE GOOD GIRLS WILL CRY”. Visceral healing process, it was to get it out of me and write it, but I suspect the real magic will begin by putting it into the world and reflecting with others on what the magic of the ‘90s was all about. Powerful music decade that carried us into what is now a brave new world of digital corporate weirdness – may the past shed a light on our future. That’s my hope for this book release and tour.
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