Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: zoom Jan 4 2010, 02:33 AM

Hey Adrian I'm just trying to understand what the key is behind your lesson? Just to explain where I am coming from.
If the song is in A major then how come we use the G chord and how come u use A minor blues scale where the relative minor would be F#m
any insight would be appericated

Posted by: djohnneay Jan 4 2010, 01:03 PM

Correct me if I'm wrong, but blues tends to have both major and minor scales of one key mixed up within a song.
This means that A minor scale will most likely be played over a G chord, and major can be played over a F# chord.
Scales that can be used in blues songs are likely to be:
A minor pentatonic : A C D E G
A major pentatonic : A B C# E F#
A blues : A C D D# E G

Most of the time when in A major, C D and G are passing notes, so you would for example go C# C B and end on an A note. This makes the C sound like a blue note, and not like an out of scale note. I hope this all makes sense, and I explained it correctly, you might want to wait for a reply from Adrian himself

I would advise you to train your ear also, so you don't only 'know' what sounds good, but can also hear it.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jan 4 2010, 02:01 PM

djohnneay is right, although the last part of his explanation is confusing.

The composition is blues, and it has major/minor based harmony (A major and D major are from A major key, and G major is from A minor key)
In the same time the scales in use are A major pentatonic/A minor pentatonic/blues. When combined together you get a lot of notes suitable for both A major and A minor key. Even using A minor pentatonic scale alone will get you the bluesy feel, but all 3 scales are equally important.

Posted by: zoom Jan 4 2010, 02:40 PM

Thanks Djohnneay and Ivan. I've now got some homework. So we are really not playing major or minor but blues which is a mix? Is there any more info on this around GMC.

Posted by: eriktodal Jan 4 2010, 04:02 PM

I (my)music theory relative minor is - not - closely related to major. They do however share the same notes.

Parallell minor/major is closely related. You hear this in a lot of blues and country. Generally major and minor shares the same dominant - V7 to Imin or V7 to Imaj. (ie. G7 to Cmin and G7 to Cmaj) - which is one "proof" of this.

In my ears its the changes between parallell minor and major that makes a typical country tune sound easygoing, (sometimes too easygoing?). You could expect that a sudden removal of 3 flats(minor->major) would make a bigger impact, but is doesn't as long as you are parallell.

Hope this isn't to confusing, it just means you can use either pentatonic as long as it sounds good. Angus is the master of making this sound cool every time, which of course depends on much more than just choosing a pentatonic.

Posted by: Sensible Jones Jan 4 2010, 06:01 PM

Just to add a bit more confusion to this...
By being based in A and using the G and D chords you could also think of this as being A Mixolydian too!

Posted by: Adrian Figallo Jan 4 2010, 09:26 PM

ohh im super late here, sorry didn't saw the thread before!
djohnneay and ivan's explanations are correct tho .

when i compose a song or a solo i don't really think on scales or theory, i just sing or "hear" the melody in my head, so didn't really tough of this before, and yeah the chord progression sounds quite major, not sure why the minor penta or the blues sounds good on it, but it's the way rock n roll is

Thanks guys for the theory!

Posted by: Daniel Realpe Jan 4 2010, 10:07 PM

I really think it has to do with perception. The blues scale has been used so much that it really feels that it fits even on a major context, and it creates this really typical tension associated with rock. I really like it.

Posted by: Ivan Milenkovic Jan 4 2010, 10:46 PM

Now that you asked - there is!

I just completed my new blues series "mixing major and minor patterns in blues". Search it, 3 lessons are on, and 2 more to come very soon, they are already on GMC, but not published yet. If you have some questions about it, let me know. Although it is blues, you can apply the same concept and patterns with any form of music.

Posted by: zoom Jan 5 2010, 11:02 AM

Thanks for your replies. Ivan I done just that and checked your lessons!