Ben's Epic Solo Builder ! Options

[Ben Higgins]

Together we are going to work on a solo bit by bit until we are left with an epic solo ! This is intended as an ongoing project with no deadlines. Anyone can participate, you don't have to ask, just post.

I want to show you how I use my limited theory knowledge to approach a chord progression and how to get good results.

We're going to use this simple backing track:

 Epic_Solo_Builder_backing_track.mp3 ( 793.3K ) Number of downloads: 211


The chord progression uses simple root + 5th power chords and it is:

E5, D5, C5
E5, B5, CD
E5, D5, C5
G5, D5, A5, E5, D5 (briefly), E5

Now if I had this progression the first thing I would do is establish what scale would work with all of those chords. Usually the first chord determines the tonality of the progression so it's going to be a scale in E. However, power chords contain no 3rds so they could be made to sound either major or minor. So, where does that leave us ?

Well, the next step would be to look at the rest of the chords and see if they use intervals that coincide with a minor or a major scale. The D5 chord would give us the dominant 7th interval of the E minor scale. The C5 chord would give us a minor 6th interval. It's looking like a minor scale so far. The G5 chord gives us a minor 3rd and the A5 is a neutral interval anyway because the 5th is the same in the minor or major.

So we have established that the E minor scale will work over this entire progression.

However, rather than just using this scale to widdle all over the backing track I want us to look at each chord as individual. This is how I do it:

I take each chord and, starting from the root note, I play through the intervals of the E minor scale (because that is our main scale) but I count the intervals from the root of the specific chord I'm on. So if I'm on C5, I count the C as the root, D as the 2nd, E as the 3rd etc.. so I'm still moving through the intervals of the Eminor scale but starting on a different note each time I play a new chord.

If I determine the 3rd interval starting at C, then I can determine what the 3rd of that chord would be. You can go through every interval and see how it sounds against that chord. Do it for every chord.

Using intervals of one scale but starting on a different root note each time is where we get modes from. If you wanted to approach it in a modal way then you would start with C and treat it as a completely new scale, which would be C Lydian. However, I don't want to approach it like that. Let's not complicate things. This way works just as well

Now, I've taken this approach with the backing and I've done a very simple solo. Just using one note for each chord, I've used a particular interval against each chord. One particular interval features the most but there are some others as well.

 Epic_Solo_Builder_Ben_1.mp3 ( 790.25K ) Number of downloads: 157


Using the approach I've described above, can anyone tell what intervals I'm playing ? In order...

After that, I want you guys to download this backing and do the same thing but choose some intervals of your own. Use the technique I described above to figure out what would be a 2nd (usually referred to as a 9th) 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th. Some will sound better than others. Some are best used either as passing tones or only over a chord made from that note itself. Gimme some takes !

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