Workshop 61 mini-test

1. What is the formula for melodic minor compared with major?

2. What distinguishes C melodic minor from C Dorian?

3. What is the defining sound of Cm(maj7)?

4. What is the formula for Lydian dominant?

5. Why is Lydian dominant useful on some prolonged or tritone-sub dominant chords?

6. What tensions characterize the altered scale?

7. What is Locrian ♮2, and why is it useful?

8. Why is “destination first” more useful than “scale first” on altered dominants?

9. How can the same RH dominant voicing acquire different meaning over G versus D♭ bass?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 61?

Answers

1. Melodic minor = major scale with ♭3. In C: C-D-E♭-F-G-A-B.
2. Both have natural 6, but Dorian has ♭7 (B♭) while melodic minor has major 7 (B).
3. A minor triad combined with a major 7th: C-E♭-G-B, producing simultaneous minor color and leading-tone tension.
4. 1-2-3-♯4-5-6-♭7.
5. It preserves dominant 3/♭7 while adding a bright ♯11 and 13, giving dominant color without necessarily maximizing altered-resolution pressure.
6. Root, 3 and ♭7 plus ♭9, ♯9, ♭5/♯11, and ♭13.
7. Locrian with a natural 2: 1-2-♭3-4-♭5-♭6-♭7. It gives half-diminished chords a useful natural 9 and smoother melodic possibilities.
8. Because altered tensions become meaningful through how they resolve; hearing D♭→C or A♭→G creates an actual phrase, whereas merely running the permitted scale does not.
9. The bass reinterprets the same upper pitches: over G they can form altered-dominant color; over D♭ they can imply the tritone-sub/Lydian-dominant side of the same dominant relationship.
10. Melodic minor is most useful not as seven scales to memorize, but as a practical system for choosing expressive minor and dominant colors whose voice-leading toward a destination you can hear.

The central lesson of Workshop 61 is:

An altered note is not sophisticated because it is unusual. It becomes sophisticated when you know exactly why you created its tension—and exactly where you want that tension to go.