Alex Hutchings: Minor Rock Fusion - The

Bonus Licks
Lick 01
JTC Says - With all of these licks, you'll find that Alex tends to use either Dorian or minor pentatonic as his "home" scales... that's simply the standard
approach with minor 7 chords. We're playing over Fm7 here, so start with F Dorian (F G Ab Bb C D Eb) and F minor pentatonic (F Ab Bb C Eb).
You'll also notice plenty of chromatic notes from outside the scales. Alex sometimes uses these to generate simple lines, like the end of measure 6, but he'll
also create more complex patterns such as the second beat of measure 8 (the notes go D-Db-C-D-Eb-C).

Lick 02
JTC Says - For this lick, Alex gives us a clean-tone funky chord figure in Bb minor. You could interpret these chords in different ways, but one way is to
think of measure 1 as Fm9 over a Bb bass, and then measure two as Bbm9.

Lick 03
JTC Says - We're back to Dorian here, but this time in Bb (Bb C Db Eb F G Ab). Again, Alex uses chromatic notes... either to fill in between scale notes,
or to lead into scale notes from above or below (these are called "neighbour notes"). A good example of the latter is the A note in measure 3, leading into
the Bb root.
Also note the series of diatonic arpeggios in measures 4 and 5. Alex plays through C minor, Db major, Eb major and F minor... all of these belong to the
Bb Dorian scale.

Lick 04
JTC Says - The melodic material here is the same as Lick 3, but the emphasis here is on creating a smooth flow of notes, switching from straight 16th notes
to sextuplets (from four notes per beat to six notes per beat). Note the different approaches in measures 1 and 2... the first ascending pattern is played with
economy picking, but the descent and second ascent is played legato.

Lick 05
JTC Says - We now move to C# minor, where our home scales will be C# Dorian (C# D# E F# G# A# B) and C# minor pentatonic (C# E F# G# B). This
lick is all about chromatic notes, so you might like to try looking carefully at the Tab and figuring out which notes are Dorian and which notes are
chromatic additions.
Alex uses chromatics in two ways here. In measures 2 and 3, he's mostly using chromatic neighbour notes, but in measure 8 he takes a pattern and moves
it down in major 3rds. Symmetrical patterns are great for generating unexpected "outside" sounds. (this pattern works best in Alex's EADGCF tuning)

Improvisational Lick JTC Notes

In this extended solo, Alex puts into practice some of the ideas we've seen in the shorter licks, but placing more emphasis on phrasing and
melody... essential tools for making longer solos more interesting!
There's nothing too complex here; we're playing over a series of minor 7th chords, so our scales are primarily Dorian or minor pentatonic. Here's
the set of scales you can use...

Gm7
Dorian: G A Bb C D E F
Minor pentatonic: G Bb C D F

Bbm7
Dorian: Bb C Db Eb F G Ab
Minor pentatonic: Bb Db Eb F Ab

Fm7
Dorian: F G Ab Bb C D Eb
Minor pentatonic: F Ab Bb C Eb

Dbm7
Dorian: Db Eb Fb Gb Ab Bb Cb
(you might prefer to interpret this as C# Dorian: C# D# E F# G# A# B)
Minor pentatonic: Db Fb Gb Ab Cb
(or C# E F# G# B)

Cm7
Dorian: C D Eb F G A Bb
Minor pentatonic: C Eb F G Bb

The exception here is that tense B9b5 chord at the end of each sequence. At the very beginning, Alex ignores this and starts with a G Dorian line.
Then, in measures 16-17 he uses the half/whole diminished scale (B C D Eb F Gb Ab A), ending measure 18 with a G Dorian phrase in
expectation of the chord change. He uses Mixolydian (B C# D# E F# G# A) in measure 34 and completely ignores the chord in measures 51-52.

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