Which Chord Options

[jstcrsn]

why does a d major chord sound better under a d minor pentatonic scale in the stead of a d minor chord
am I wrong or what theory am I missing

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[Alex Feather]

why does a d major chord sound better under a d minor pentatonic scale in the stead of a d minor chord
am I wrong or what theory am I missing

You mean D minor pentatonic over D major chord?
If yes it sound good because minor pentatonic works perfectly over a major chord it doesn't mean it's better than major pentatonic it just sounds different!
Major pentatonic is not gonna work over minor chord because of the major third!

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[jstcrsn]

You mean D minor pentatonic over D major chord?
If yes it sound good because minor pentatonic works perfectly over a major chord it doesn't mean it's better than major pentatonic it just sounds different!
Major pentatonic is not gonna work over minor chord because of the major third!

thanks, that is what I meant , but why does it work

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[Ben Higgins]

I know the sound you mean. I actually don't like that effect at all even though a lot of blues guys use it. It just sounds wrong to me, like they don't know about the Major pentatonic

A minor 3rd played before a major 3rd just seems to give a bluesy effect, especially when resolved with a root note. Even if you just play the minor 3rd it probably gives the same bluesy sound because the major 3rd is in the chord underneath, even if you dont play it in the lead.

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[Sinisa Cekic]

In fact, D minor pentatonic scale sounds even better with the D Major7 chord. How ?
If you look at D major chord>a third degree is F#, while the D minor pentatonic scale as the third degree have a ton F, does not fit very well, right ? Now, try to play the D minor pentatonic over D7 or D major chords, but when you get to F > bend it only half a degree /
to F# and voila> you got that blues fill and better sounding pattern .

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This post has been edited by Sinisa Cekic: Feb 21 2012, 11:30 AM

[Alex Feather]

thanks, that is what I meant , but why does it work

Well if we look at D major chord
we will get those notes!
D - F#- A

Now let's look at pentatonics!

Here is B minor blues



Here is Dmi



Both of those will work because there is no 7 in the chord and you can't hear the full color of the chord!
So you can play major and b7 over it!

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[The Professor]

Kind of a short reply, but there's an old quote from Miles Davis that says "You can play minor over major, but never major over minor"

So in short, you could play a minor pent scale over a major chord, gives it a bluesy sound. But you couldn't play a major pent over a minor chord, that wouldn't work.

I always think of that quote as a reference to this sort of thing.

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