If you haven’t heard of this particular scale before, it’s certainly a very useful one to know if you are going to be soloing over altered dominant 7th chords like G7#9 or G7b9b13 etc.  

The Altered scale is in fact a modal scale taken from the Melodic Minor scale. It is also known as the ‘Super Locrian’ mode or sometimes the ‘Diminished Whole-Tone Scale’ 

Regardless of the all the confusion about the name of the scale, the good news is that it sounds really effective when played over altered dominant chords. In the musical examples below I’ve drawn out the scale from a root note of G and then illustrated some interval exercises for you to practice. 

Playing any scale or mode in diatonic intervals is very helpful in understanding the scale structure and also in being able to improvise fluently with it.

These exercises will take some weeks or months to really get under your fingers, but if you persevere with practicing them you’ll find that the scale is a very useful addition to your soloing arsenal.  I’ll cover the use of this scale in more detail in a future lesson.

Pete

Here’s a PDF file of the above exercises: The Altered Scale PDF

Here’s a MIDI file of the exercises as well: