I've been doing a lot of work with Melodic Minor modes, specifically Lydian Dominant, Locrian #2, Altered Dominant (Super Locrian), and Melodic Minor itself. I abbreviate them as LD, L2, AD, and MM. LD isn't a big deal, as I only use it to color a standard dominant sound, and I'm pretty comfortable with that. It's the minor ii-V-i turnarounds that are giving me trouble, using L2 on the ii, AD on the V, and MM on the i.

Here's each scale's spelling:
MM: 1 2 b3 4 5 6 7
LD (4th mode of MM): 1 2 3 #4 5 6 b7
L2 (6th mode of MM): 1 2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7
AD (7th mode of MM): 1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 = 1 b9 #9 3 b5 #5 b7

A major ii-V-I allows you to play the major scale of the I for the whole thing. (LD is the most consonant over the V, but you can get away with just the I major.) A minor ii-V-i is much trickier. The natural minor scale on the i is undesirable over all three chords. The ii chord is closest, but it usually calls for L2 instead of Locrian. The V chord is often altered to all hell, calling for Phrygian Major, Symmetric Dominant (Half-Whole Diminished), Whole Tone, or Altered Dominant. I default to AD (because it's simply 1, 3, b7, both altered 5ths, both altered 9ths) unless certain extensions are specified that preclude it. And finally, a minor chord functioning as tonic deserves nothing less than Melodic Minor.

Using L2 over the ii chord, AD over the V, and MM over the i requires rapid changes of context when this progression isn't given much time. These are all different scales; L2 on 2 is MM on 4, AD on 5 is MM on b6. So it's tough to cheat and use the same group of notes for the whole thing like the major ii-V-I.

I'm getting better at navigating through these three scales, but I need more material. So far I'm just improvising within the mental framework I'm building. I intend to grab some licks from my 1001 Jazz Licks book, and James Mahone just posted a number of minor ii-V ideas on his Practice Portal blog.

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