Transcribing

[Jan]

Hi Johnny,

I picked a blues song by John Barry; very easy to follow. It's the the theme from Midnight Cowboy. I'm guessing it's in concert C (no sharps or flats at the beginning). When I want to improvise on my Tenor, and the chords on the sheet for each bar say:

|C|Bb|C|Bb|Bb|C|Bb|Ab|Dbmaj7|G7|C|Bb|Ab|Dbmaj7|C|Bb|

then the scales I would work from are:

|D|C|D|C|C|D|C|Bb|E|A|D|C|Bb|E|D|C|

– having transposed them up two semi-tones (I think). I'm not sure why some of them use the extra "maj7" notation, though. Nevertheless, am I right?

Jan

[john]

Yes. The maj7th is just that, as opposed to the dominant or flat 7th we use in blues a lot. So in C, the flat 7 is Bb. If we play C E G Bb we have just played a C7 chord.

If we raise the 7 it becomes a B natural and therefor a major 7. So C E G B is a major t chord which sounds totally different from the dominant 7 chord.

[Jan]

Thanks, Johnny. Much appreciated. I just need to get my head around the differences. I totally grasp that the major and minor (maj7 and 7) are raised and flattened respectively, however is the dominant then the natural tone for that particular scale? Or, if not – what is the dominant?

Jan

[john]

Your confusion may be because of the word "dominant".
We just call a 7th chord a dominant 7 chord. (I guess because it sounds so dominant)
If I didn't answer your question it may be because I'm not understanding it properly.

[Author]

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