How to Completely Alter Your Guitar Solos

The Altered Dominant "scale" is actually just a mode shape of the Melodic Minor scale. The reason it's thought of as it's own tonality may have something to do with the ergonomics of the shape, or the accessibility of the interval arrangement of that particular position being more useful in a traditional context. Wow, it's impossible to not sound like a nerd when discussing this sound... to get even more nerdy with this type of theory, I recommend checking out Guitar Super System.