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?

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[Ben Howell]

This is actually quite a complex question (i was thinking about explaining this just the other day actually).

Basically we have keys in music.

Theses keys produce a set amount of notes, and from those notes chords are built.

We then make porgressions based on those chords in a key.

So for the key of C major, we have the notes:

C D E F G A B

From which these chords can be built, from the notes of C major:

Cmaj7, Dmin7, Emin7, Fmaj7, G7, Amin7, Bmin7b5


Without going into modes too much -Check out Andrews great theory article on this, link is above-

If a progression is based around each of these chords, they all have a different feel or vibe (proper word is tonality)

So say you base the progression around the C major chord -by base i mean resolve to, or end up at as 'home'

You'll get a progresion like so:

Dmin7-G7-Amin7-Cmaj7

This will have a 'major' sound to the overall progression.

Base it around Dmin7:

Dmin7-G7-Dmin7

It will have a D Dorian sound- youll have to read through Andrews modes workout to understand this.


Each chord built of a scale, if you base a chord progression around it will have a certain 'sound'.

So if you want a major tonality/vibe, base it around the Cmajor7 chord (for the key of C major).

If you want a minor sound, base it around the Amin7 chord.

Want a dorian sound? Base it around Dmin7, the second mode of C major.


What i will reiterate is that regardless of modes/keys, an interval will always sound the same over a particular chord.

For example play D note over C major7, it will always sound like a major 2nd, regardless of the chords place in a key.

Hopefully this is addressing what you wanted to know.

let Andrew chip in

-Ben

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This post has been edited by benhowell: Jun 15 2007, 03:44 PM

[Andrew Cockburn]

let Andrew chip in

-Ben

Hey, you're doing a great job Part of the problem here is that all of these concepts are so interrelated that its difficult to pull parts out in isolation. All I can says is that when you understand all of this you'll understand all of this

Bens point about building chords from the scale is discussed in a lesson here - this may give you some insight.

If you are finding the discussion around modes a little intimidating, just file it away for future reference. The essential part of this is that the scale and chords, along with which of those chords the song resolves to, taken together present to your mind as a whole the feel of the song.

Play the same notes in a different order with the same chords in a different order and you will get a totally different feel.

And finally, which pentatonic scale you use depends on the ordering and resolution of the chords- which is in fact determined by the key you are in.

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This post has been edited by Andrew Cockburn: Jun 15 2007, 04:02 PM