Upper Structures By Scales

2 minute read

Upper structures is a way of expressing altered seventh chords by using a triad over the root and shell. I briefly covered upper structures in a previous post. In my previous post I suggest memorizing which alterations each triad over each chord degree produces. However, there is a better way of going about it that requires less memorization as well as lets you be more flexible with finding more upper structure voicings.

• Harmonizing Scales with Triads
• Applying This to Dominant Scales
• In Practice
• Practicing This
• Final Note

Harmonizing Scales with Triads

A concept that you should be familiar with first is the concept of harmonizing scales with triads. I’m not certain if harmonizing is the right term, but basically you can go up and down scales in triads instead of just single notes. Here is an example with C Major:

As you can tell, it sounds much fuller, and each triad carries more of the sound of the C major scale than a single note would.

Applying This to Dominant Scales

You can do the same to dominant scales. I discuss the scales you can use over dominant chords in this post.

By harmonizing these dominant scales in this fashion, you are giving yourself options to a multitude of triads with various alterations; 6-8 different triads for each scale. This is essentially what upper structures is doing, but instead of memorizing each upper structure as a chord of a scale degree, you can think of it as a triad in a scale you already know. This also makes it easier to use upper structures to voice chords based on a particular melody note.

Here is an example of C altered scale harmonized in triads:

In Practice

This makes it easy to harmonize melodies of tunes if you already know which dominant scale you want to use over a chord. Let’s take a look at this excerpt from “Stella By Starlight.”

The chords that I’m using this method of upper structures with are A7 and F7. With A7 I’m using the A altered scale, and with F7 I’m using the Lydian Dominant scale. For each measure, I’m just building the triad down the scale starting from the melody notes.

Practicing This

I practice this in a similar fashion as I do for scales over dominant chords. However, instead of doing playing individual notes, I play triads.

Final Note

By thinking about upper structures in this way, you’re solidifying the relationship between dominant chord and dominant scales. I believe it’s a more holistic and flexible way of finding triads that add altered flavors to dominant chords.

Written on August 5th, 2020 by Chris Cheung