What Scales To Practise ? Options

[aerohit]

Hiya. In order to freely flirt with my guitar, I learned A major and all its modes all over the guitar. But I somehow am not able to produce the kind of noises that would please me. One of the probable reason is because I have not chosen the right scale. Can someone suggest what scale should I choose to begin with, to create some really tasty riffs and licks rock style.

To give a little hint, I like Led Zep, Metallica, Slash and all those rock and roll bands of the 70-80's. So probably some lightning on what scales they worked with would help.

Also, A minor pentatonic box seems to be a pretty popular box. May I know from which major scale,if at all, is it derived from?

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[aerohit]

Thanks Robin for the link. But now I have an even more interesting question. I just found out that A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic have the same notes, of course with different root. So how do you decide whether some piece is in C major pentatonic or A minor pentatonic. To put the same question in a different manner, how is playing In A minor pentatonic different from playing in C major pentatonic.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by aerohit: Jun 15 2007, 10:18 AM

[Ben Howell]

Thanks Robin for the link. But now I have an even more interesting question. I just found out that A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic have the same notes, of course with different root. So how do you decide whether some piece is in C major pentatonic or A minor pentatonic. To put the same question in a different manner, how is playing In A minor pentatonic different from playing in C major pentatonic.

Hey there,

Deciding which key a peice is in is where the chord progression wants to resolve to.

By resolve we mean 'end up', or where the listener hears the tonal center.

So whether a peice is in 'A minor' Or 'C major' is down to whether the chord progression resolves to Am, or Am7 etc, or C major, C major7 etc.

So if you had a progression:

Dm7- Am7-G7-Cmaj

That would be in the key Of C major.

If you had the progression:

Em7-Cmaj7-Fmaj7-Am7

That would be in the key of A minor.


Its all where it ends up at, or where your ear hears it to be based around.

I hope that makes sense.

Ben

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

This post has been edited by benhowell: Jun 15 2007, 02:50 PM

[aerohit]

Hey there,

Deciding which key a peice is in is usually where the chord progression wants to resolve to.

By resolve we mean 'end up', or where the listener hears the tonal center.

So whether a peice is in 'A minor' Or 'C major' is down to whether the chord progression resolves to Am, or Am7 etc, or C major, C major7 etc.

So if you had a progression:

Dm7- Am7-G7-Cmaj

That would be in the key Of C major.

If you had the progression:

Em7-Cmaj7-Fmaj7-Am7

That would be in the key of A minor.
Its all where it ends up at, or where your ear hears it to be based around.

I hope that makes sense.

Ben

Thanks Ben.

But lets say we are having a chord progression that ends at Cmaj7. Now when soloing how would I make sure that it sounds to be in C major pentatonic and not in A minor pentatonic, and vice-versa, even when the notes are same for the two scales.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

[Andrew Cockburn]

Thanks Ben.

But lets say we are having a chord progression that ends at Cmaj7. Now when soloing how would I make sure that it sounds to be in C major pentatonic and not in A minor pentatonic, and vice-versa, even when the notes are same for the two scales.

It will sound in Cmaj penta automatically - technically you can play either Am or Cmaj Pentatonic and you will be using the same selection of notes - as I said in my earlier post, its actually the song as a whole that determines the key, including the chords.

I realize that this is confusing ... look at it this way. A scale is a pallette of notes you can use to build a solo out of. If the notes are the same, it doesn't actually matter which of the 2 scales they are from in the context of the song, the results will be identical. Eventually the idea is to move away from individual boxes and just understand the notes in the context of the song. Once you have the key in mind, you know the notes you can play.

However, from an ear training point of view we would make the distinction as the 2 scales sound diferent because you will be playing the notes in a slightly different order, starting from the A instead of the C - this ifference is also taken into account when you design the chord progression (which is based on the scale), so it all works out in the end - the confusion comes from looking at the notes and the chords in isolation.

You are at GuitarMasterClass.net

Don't miss today's free lick. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!

Don't miss today's free blues, jazz & country licks. Plus all our lessons are packed with free content!