Lydian Dominant Scale – Guitar

Shapes, Formula, and Licks

PUBLISHED IN INTERMEDIATE, JAZZ GUITAR LESSONS, JAZZ GUITAR SCALES

The Lydian dominant scale is the 4th mode of melodic minor and is used
to solo over dominant chords when you want to bring out a 7#11 sound in
your lines.

Used mostly in jazz and fusion solos, Lydian dominant is also found in
blues and rock solos when guitarists want to step outside the musical box
in their playing.

In this lesson you’ll learn how to build Lydian dominant, apply it to your
solos, study one and two-octave fingerings, scale patterns and licks on
the fretboard.

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Lydian Dominant Quick Facts

What is the Lydian Dominant Scale?Lydian Dominant is the 4th mode of
melodic minor, meaning C Lydian Dominant is the same as G melodic
minor, starting on C.

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 How to You Build Lydian Dominant? You build Lydian

Dominant with the interval pattern 1-2-3-#4-5-6-b7.

What is a Dominant Scale? A dominant scale is one that’s used

to solo over dominant 7th chords, including Lydian Dominant, Mixolydian,

Bebop, and more.

What is a 7#11 Chord? A 7#11 chord is built with the intervals 1-

3-#11-b7, which all come from the Lydian Dominant scale.

When to Use Lydian Dominant? You use Lydian Dominant to

solo over 7th chords, or 7#11 chords, when you want to bring a 7#11
sound to your lines.

Lydian Dominant Scale Construction

Lydian dominant contains seven notes and has one accidental when
written in the key of F.

This means that if you play F Lydian dominant on the piano, you only play
the white keys, with the E lowered to Eb.

These seven notes can be written a number of ways such as intervals:

R-2-3-#4-5-6-b7

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 Or you can think of them as specific intervals such as:

P1-M2-M3-A4-P5-M6-m7

In this case, the legend for each symbol would be:

 P = Perfect Interval
 M = Major Interval
 m = Minor Interval
 A = Augmented Interval

While these intervals are commonly used, you can also think of the upper
notes as chord extensions.

This means that you think of Lydian dominant with this pattern:

R-9-3-#11-5-13-b7

I prefer this way of thinking as it allows you to visualize the upper colors
of the scale over any chord you’re soloing over.

Here’s how an F Lydian dominant looks on the fretboard with both notes
and intervals.

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You can use either system, 2-#4-6, 9-#11-13, or a mixture of both
depending on the musical situation.

Try both and see which fits better and go forward in your studies with that
interval system.

Notice that Lydian dominant has a #11, which is the characteristic note of
the scale and distinguishes it from Mixolydian.

When soloing over dominant chords, highlighting the #11 brings out the
Lydian dominant sound, which you’ll hear in the examples below.

Lydian Dominant Scale Application

Now that you know how to build this scale, take a look at how you apply
this important scale to a guitar soloing situation.

Lydian dominant is used to solo over dominant family chords. When doing
so, you bring a #11 sound to your phrases.

These chords include:

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 7
 9
 13
 7#11
 9#11
 13#11

When using Lydian dominant over dominant chords, you create tension
that needs to resolve, which prevents it from sounding like a mistake.

Here’s an example of a Lydian dominant fingering and three chords from

that scale to see how the two relate to each other on the fretboard.

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To use this theory, put on a dominant chord backing track and solo with
any fingering you learn in this lesson.

You can also apply Lydian dominant to the V7 chord in a ii-V-I.

So, putting on a major ii V I track and soloing over the V7 chord with this
scale is a great way to apply this sound to a progression.

You can also use the Lydian dominant scale to solo over blues chords.

An example of this is the Sonny Rollins song “Blue Seven,” which uses
7#11 sounds over each chord in the tune.

To help you practice, here’s a G Lydian dominant jam track that you can
use to solo or run exercises over in your studies.

Lydian Dominant Chords

Here are eight different Lydian dominant chords that you can study and
add to your playing.

These chords can be used to add a 7#11 sound to your comping, chord
soloing, and chord melody arrangements.

To begin, here are four shapes with the root on the 6th-string of each
shape.

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8
You can also learn 4 Lydian dominant chords with the root on the 5th
string of each shape.

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 Lydian Dominant One Octave Fingerings
Before digging into Lydian dominant on guitar, there’s a shortcut you can
take to quickly get these scales under your fingers.

As well as thinking of the interval pattern, you can think of Lydian

dominant as being Lydian with a flattened 7th.

This knowledge allows you to take any Lydian fingerings and lower the
seventh by one fret to create Lydian dominant fingerings.

Here’s how that looks on the fretboard as you compare the one-note
difference between F Lydian and F Lydian dominant.

Here are a number of one-octave Lydian dominant shapes that you

can work on in your practice routine.

One-octave shapes are handy when soloing over fast moving chord
changes or at fast tempos.

There are three groups of fingerings for one-octave Lydian dominant

shapes, starting with your index finger on the root note.

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When learning these shapes, work them in 12 keys and solo over
dominant chord using these shapes as the basis for your improvised
lines.

This ensures that you work Lydian dominant from both a technical and
improvisational standpoint.

Here are one-octave F Lydian dominant shapes to check out in your

woodshedding.

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You can also learn Lydian dominant scales with your middle finger on the
first note.

Once you have these four shapes under your fingers, move between the
first four and these four in both your practice routine.

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Lastly, here are four shapes that begin with your pinky finger on the first
note.

Again, work these shapes in all keys and solo over dominant backing
tracks to be creative with these scales in the woodshed.

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 Lydian Dominant Two Octave Fingerings
As well as learning one-octave scale shapes, you can take these patterns
a step further by learning two-octave shapes.

Two-octave shapes come in handy when soloing over longer chord

changes or tunes that don’t change keys very frequently.

There are a number of ways that you can build two-octave Lydian
dominant shapes, here are four to get you started.

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 Lydian Dominant Scale Patterns
You can now check out scale patterns over any of the Lydian dominant
scales you’ve learned in this lesson.

To begin, here is an ascending pattern you can use to expand your

technique and learn scale shapes at the same time.

The pattern is built by playing 1234 from the root of the scale, repeating
this pattern from each note in the scale.

This means that you play 1234, 2345, 3456, etc. as you work your way up
the scale.

Click to hear

Vm
P

You can also work this pattern descending any scale fingering you’re
working on.

Again, you play 1234 from each note in the scale, building the intervals
5678, 4567 3456, etc. as you work your way down the fingering.

Click to hear

Vm
P
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Once you have one or both of these patterns down, put on a dominant
backing track and add this pattern to your solos.

You don’t have to play them in every phrase, but adding these patterns
here and there is a great way to spice up your improvised phrases.

Lydian Dominant Licks

You can also study licks in order to expand your vocabulary and build
your understanding of this scale in a soloing context.

This first lick is a typical Pat Martino phrase that uses a CmMaj7
arpeggio, C-Eb-G-B, to outline the F7#11 sound.

Click to hear

Vm
P

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You’ll now move on to a Wes Montgomery lick that begins with a typical
Wes rhythm, leading again to the CmMaj7 arpeggio which is a common
choice over F7#11.

Click to hear

Vm
P

Drawing upon John Coltrane’s use of Lydian dominant, this phrase uses
1235 from the notes F and G to outline the first half of the line.

Click to hear

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 Vm
P

Once you have these licks down, write out 3 Lydian dominant licks as you
build your soloing vocabulary with this important scale.

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 What You Can Read Next

DROP 2 AND 4 CHORDS – CREATIVE GUITAR VOICINGS

JAZZ GUITAR SOLOING – COMPLETE BEGINNER’S GUIDE

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 10 MUST KNOW BEGINNING JAZZ STANDARDS

2 Comments to “ Lydian Dominant Scale – Guitar Shapes,

Formula, and Licks”
1. Jay says : REPLY

March 19, 2019 at 8:44 pm

In the Lydian Dominant licks sections, you mention playing a “CmMaj7

arpeggio, C-Eb-G-B, to outline the F7#11 sound.” How does one know which
arpeggio to play over which chord. As I was reading through this lesson on the
Lydian Dominant sclae, I thought I would be playing the Lydian Dominant scale
over it’s corresponding chord. For example, in that Martino example, I assumed I
would play the F Lydian Dominant scale over that F7. Is this incorrect?

1. Matt Warnock says : REPLY

March 20, 2019 at 6:21 am

Anytime you want to create a 7#11 sound, you play a mMaj7 arpeggio from the
5th of that chord. So for C7#11 you play GmMaj7 for example. And yes you can
also play F Lyd Dom over F7 as a scale. But sometimes jazz players like to hide
the scale so they use concepts like mMaj7 from the 5th.

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