Hey muris, just got a theory question that was troubling me while improvising over this Guthrie jam track - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71izserFcek Im guessing you know it.. its got the free backing track available to download from bluesjamtracks.com

Well the chord progression goes Dm9, Bbmaj7, Gm9, Ebmaj7, D7 then repeats Bbmaj7, Gm9, Ebmaj7 and ends with a Dm9.

So my first thoughts are D aeolian, with 1 flat, that fits the first 3 chords. Then Ebmaj7 comes in with Bb and Eb and so i replaced the E with an Eb.. which i now realise thats D phrygian, or would it be called Bb major? im not really sure

then the D7 part has a Gb in it and a C natural so D mixolydian mode seams to fit there..

the only thing is.. because its in a fusion style its hard to tell whats right and wrong when playing because chromatics sound good etc.. but sometimes it just seams that things dont always fit? am i missing something or have i got something wrong here?

cheers

Hi.

The very first chord is not actually Dm9,
Guthrie plays D mixolydian over it and if it was Dm9 then
D mixo would not work that good, that chord is more like C/D or something,
3rd is not that well articulated so you can go with D Mixo, D Dorian or even mix 2 of those.
Bmaj7 is part of Dm key/scale (6th degree) so it would be D Aeolian or Bb Lydian,
what works easier for you to follow.
Then comes Gm7/9 and that one is a bit tricky to figure out and here's why.
Naturally it appears as another chord from Dm key (it's 4th degree in a key of Dm)
but the chord that comes AFTER is Ebmaj7 and that's key of Gm (or Eb Lydian if you prefer).
So over Gm chord you can continue playing D Aeolian, then easily switch to Gm scale
to prepare it for Gm scale that goes for Ebmaj7 chord.
Guthrie does that wisely tho, without too much accents on either Dm or Gm scale,
instead he plays Gm pentatonic mostly since Gm penta is included in both Dm and Gm scale.
After that the whole things repeats.
Regrading chromatic, it works cool with this kind of Fusion sound
but you have to be careful when, where and how to use it.
What most of the people do is that they connect 2 or more notes from scale using chromatic,
per example, D, E and F# notes from D Mixolydian might work and D, Eb, E, F and F# line,
A and B can be connected as A, Bb and B etc.
Its matter of experience to figure out what to use but after all it's your ear
that WILL tell you what works and what not.

Hope this helps.

Cheers.

Knew you would give me a good answer Muris!

Weird that they call the first chord Dm9 on the tab you download with the backing track, very confusing... but now u mention its mixolydian at the start I can hear it.. do you do most of ur analysis by just listening?

Definatley can play over this much more smoothly now.. no longer hitting notes that I knew didnt quite fit so thanks a lot! Could you advise any other backing tracks with some cool changes in them?

Well yeah, mostly it's just ear that helps me, it comes with time and lot of transcribing using ear only.
I would have to think more to give you some another example of cool BT
but you might wanna check other BT available at BluesJamTracks, they have plenty nice ones.
After that we can discuss them all to se what we can play over then,
not a problem and you're very welcome.