soloing over chord changes...

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

Pretend that a midtempo rock song is fading out on a guitar riff in the key of E-the three chords are E, B and A (1, 5, 4). So do you play in E major over all three? Do you shift E to B to A-trying to weave your notes together over the changes? This way the notes will sound "righter" but the shifting will bring the speed down. Do you play in E major or E minor (which sounds pretty good over B) and just shift to A when the riff gets there? (combination of both the above). Do you play in C minor (relative minor of E)? And then shift through the change (changes)? Calling Brian, Ferrari1, all you schooled guys (forgive me if i don't know your names). How would you approach this? My plan is to start by duplicating the melody with the guitar (always a good idea!) and then try to take off on a lead-hopefully to get to a peak of some sorts Rolling Eyes

and then fade. Be Gods-scott

Steve · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 5:27 pm Post subject:

I think Cm pentatonic is a good bet, but I would probably use E pentatonic and find some extra notes I can slide in there. It's good ear training if you can work it out to a tape of the changes.
If you must deliver RIGHT NOW on-the-spot I'd go with E pentatonic unless it's Maj7 chord E, it which case I'd play Ab phrygian mode or B mixolydian, but that's a whole different thing: diatonic, rather than pentatonic (like in Jazz and more complicated Pop tunes, or Santana-ish or Latin flavored stuff).

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

Darn Steve-I thought you were a blues hacker like me! A flat phrygian indeed! I thought that was when you slid on the ice and fell down! Seriously, the Cmin pentatonic will work good for the melody and then I could work up to the Emin Pentatonic and play my Clapton licks. Yeah, that's the ticket. scott

Steve · Posted: Thu Mar 04, 2004 9:48 pm Post subject:

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

AND, just who the heck would put a Emaj7 in a Rock song anyway? Rolling Eyes

Have you been jamming along with your Barry Manilow CD's again? Laughing

Steve · Posted: Fri Mar 05, 2004 6:20 am Post subject: Re: soloing over chord changes...

sharring · Tiger Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 812 Location: Texas

You know Steve, lead is funny (especially mine!). I've been hacking around for 20+ years and I did some schooling. I remember playing the modes in Jazz class-especially Dorian-and you know, some stuff just sounds righter than others to me. Perhaps there is no angle on good lead playing. Maybe it's like Michelangelo carving David-you just chip away everything that doesn't look like David! Seriously, thanks for responding to this. I figure our schooled peers don't really know how they do what they do, much less how to explain it on a computer. Be God's my brother-scott