Piano: Ab Mixolydian Over the Changes

Where Ab Mixolydian lies at this seat, and what a chorus takes out of it.

Ab Mixolydian runs 7 notes to the octave, laid out here across 88 keys with every Ab flagged. Mid-chorus the pattern is not what you need; where the root is when the chord changes underneath you is.

Major with a flatted 7th (b7) — bright and bluesy. The dominant chord turned into a tonal center with a rock/folk edge.

Heard in: "Sweet Home Chicago", "Norwegian Wood" (Beatles), Celtic and folk music — anywhere a major sound needs a darker, looser edge.

The right hand takes the line and the left keeps stating the chord under it, which makes a scale at this seat a two-handed problem: the notes have to work against a voicing you are choosing at the same time.

Play it slowly against the audio until it stops being a shape, then put it over two bars of a form and let the chord tones decide which of the notes you actually keep.