By Ken Volpe
This is Lesson #18 in a series on Guitar Improvisation. Last week in Lesson #17 we started our discussion on theory pertaining to the guitar. Let’s continue.
You have your chord progression from last week all set to go. The chords in the progression are A Major, D Major, and E Major. As a side note, you can also refer to these three chords as simply A, D, and E. In other words, if you are just using the letter name to describe a chord it is understood that it is a Major chord.
You now want to hit “play” on your CD player or looper and create a great solo. So what scale do you use? Three options come to mind. Option 1 is for you to solo with the A Minor Pentatonic Scales. We touched on using these scales in some earlier lessons. They will work, but it’s not really your best choice. Why? First, that sound has been used countless times and can be too much of a cliché. Secondly, some of the notes of the scales don’t match the notes of the chords. What really matters is the sound when scales and chords mesh.
Let’s now take a closer look at this. The notes in an A Minor Pentatonic Scales are A, C, D, E, and G. The A Major chord contains notes A, C# and E. The C# note is not found in our A Minor Pentatonic Scale. The D Major chord contains notes D, F# and A. The F# note is not found in our A Minor Pentatonic Scale. The E Major chord contains notes E, G# and B. The G# and B notes are not found in our A Minor Pentatonic Scale. Hence, some of the chord tones will clash with the scale tones.
This brings up a Catch-22 dilemma. We started out learning improvisation with a specific Minor Pentatonic Scale. That 1 scale works early on because of its simplicity in terms of the fingering and the sound. However, some of the notes aren’t a perfect fit for some chords, as we just discussed earlier. So in a sense, I am telling you that what used to be accurate is now not so accurate. Trust me; once you see the bigger picture this will all make sense. You have to learn theory in small fragments and you need to start applying the theory early on, so you can retain it.
This week I would like you to concentrate on hearing how some of the notes of the scales do not match with some of the notes of the chords. This will help to develop your ear. Training your ear is really the awareness of what sounds will fit and what sounds do not fit within the context of a song. Once again, the sound of what occurs when scales and chords mesh is paramount. That is where the magic happens. In just about every classic solo ever recorded this is evident. Whether it’s B.B. King, AC/DC, Eric Johnson or Joe Pass, that scale/chord relationship is what you should listen for.
In next week’s lesson we will discuss Option 2 in regards to what scales we can improvise with that will fit our chords progression. I’ll see you all at the next lesson.
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