A Bebop melodic minor Scale
A Bebop melodic minor contains 8 notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, F♯, G♯. It has 2 sharps: F♯, G♯. The step pattern is W–H–W–W–H–H–W–H.
The bebop melodic minor scale extends the bebop concept to minor-major harmony. It adds a b6 passing tone to melodic minor, smoothing out its large intervallic gap.
The formula is 1, 2, b3, 4, 5, b6, 6, 7. The chromatic insertion between 5 and 6 enables downbeat alignment over minor-major 7th chords (mMaj7). It is the least common bebop scale but appears in advanced jazz contexts, especially over tunes built on melodic minor harmony.
Practice this scale over mMaj7 vamps and melodic minor chord progressions. The b6-6 chromatic pair connects the dark lower half (b3) with the bright upper half (6, 7), making it useful for creating tension-resolution arcs within a single line.