Improvisation Guidelines for Funk Changes:-

In this document I want to give you my thought process in terms of scale choices and
harmony for this improvisation. There are many approaches to soloing over a set of
changes such as these so make sure you explore as many as you can find and try to
develop your own sound as much as you can.
The progression is firmly rooted in the key of F major but Im going to analyse
everything on its own merit and not worry too much about trying to outline this key
centre. Im thinking more modally over the progression and as such not all of the
scales used will be derived from F major.
For the A section we have 4 chords: -
Dm9, G#dim, Gm7 and C7sus4.
For the Dm7 Im mostly using a D dorian scale to outline the very cool sounding 13th
interval. This works particularly well in the funk and fusion context, rather than trying
to use D Aeolian (from F major), containing the b13th interval. Try both for yourself
I have a feeling youll prefer Dorian! I also use some D melodic minor using the
maj7th interval in passing and for tension. You could try playing out by using a D
diminished scale and of course Dm Pentatonic will always sounds great.
For the G# diminished chord I use a different kind of thought process. I really dont
like soloing over diminished chords as its very hard to think intervallically over them
and come up with interesting melodies. (at least I find it hard). Usually you can
analyse diminished chords as being an inversion of a dominant 7th chord of some
kind. In general, if the root note of the diminished chord has been written correctly,
and especially in this context, the diminished chord is functioning as a dominant 7b9
chord up a minor 6th. In other words a dominant 7b9 chord a minor 6th higher than the
root note of our diminished chord in this case E7b9. I actually use a few different
scales over this chord thinking of E as the root note, including E phyrgian dominant,
E superlocrian, E diminished (half/whole) and E Mixolydian b9. The main idea is to
get the b9 sound against the E root and resolve your lines strongly to the upcoming
Gm7 Chord.
For the Gm7 chord I use a G Dorian scale. Once again I love the 13th of the scale
against the chord. G melodic minor will also work if you treat the maj7th interval
with care.
For the C7sus4 I mostly use a C Mixolydian Scale but also use a b9 interval or even C
superlocrian if I want to create more tension. Youll need some strong phrasing to
make this work well.
For the B section we have another 4 chords: -
F/A, Abm13, Gm7 and C7sus4
Only two chords have changed and theyre very simple to play over.
For the F/A (actually voiced as Fadd9/A) you can think of either F major, playing off
the F root or A Phrygian, playing off the A root. Either will do but make sure you try
to outline the Fadd9 sound as much as possible using arpeggios. F major pentatonic is
especially useful for this. Try Am Pentatonic too which will lead very nicely by step,
down a semitone to the next chord.
For the Abm13 chord you should use Ab Dorian or Ab melodic minor. If you were
using Am pentatonic for the previous chord then Abm Pentatonic will be a great
choice here.
For the Gm7 and C7sus4, the approach is the same as above.
Good luck with the track and Id love to hear your results.
Post them as a video response on my channel!

Cheers,

Tom