scales and soloing

[oldete828688]

I've been playing for alittle while now and I want to start learning scales and soloing. I just don't know how to tell what key to use and what key songs are in. If I am using a progression of A G F E, how do i know what to solo in?

[judge_gideon]

Are your chords all major chords?

This matters when selecting a scale.

If you're using "power chords", this simplifies things dramatically.

When I say power chord, I mean a root note plus a 5th like this pattern:

┌───────────────────┐
├───────────────────┤
├───────────────────┤
├───────────────────┤
├──7──5── 3──2───────┤
└──5──3── 1──0───────┘
.....A....G....F....E
These are power chords. They are neither major nor minor. They're neutral and ambiguous. These work great with rock songs, because adding more chord tones when using a distortion pedal or overdrive, tends to get muddy.

So far, the sum of all notes in these 4 power chords is:
A = A,E
G = G,D
F = F,C
E = E,B
...which is
A, B, C, D, E, F, G

This works out nice, because these are ALL the notes in C Major.

But, if you are using Major and Minor chords, you'll need a different anaysis:
┌──0──3── 1──0───────┐
├──1──0── 1──0───────┤
├──2──0── 2──0───────┤
├──2──0── 3──2───────┤
├──0──2── 3──2───────┤
└──5──3── 1──0───────┘
.....Am..G....F....Em

The sum of the notes in these 4 chords are:
Am = A,C,E
G = G,B,D
F = F,A,C
Em = E,G,B
...which is
A, B, C, D, E, F, G

...fortunately, it's still C Major.

Now for the scales

Playing a comfortable C Major fingering in the middle area of the fretboard could be a pattern like this:

┌─────────────────────────────7─8─10────┐
├─────────────────────────8─10──────────┤
├───────────────────7─9─10──────────────┤
├─────────────7─9─10────────────────────┤
├───────7─8─10──────────────────────────┤
└─7─8─10────────────────────────────────┘


Here's a lower fingering for C Major:
┌──────────────────────────────3─5──────┐
├─────────────────────────3─5─6─────────┤
├───────────────────2─4─5───────────────┤
├─────────────2─3─5─────────────────────┤
├───────2─3─5───────────────────────────┤
└───3─5─────────────────────────────────┘

Have fun practicing! :D

♪ ♫♫♪

[oldete828688]

thanks man that helped

[oldete828688]

also...if my buddy says lets jam in a key of watever...how am i supposed to no wat chords to play and wat to solo on...through alot of memorization of the keys and which chords make them up??

[Whatever]

also...if my buddy says lets jam in a key of watever...how am i supposed to no wat chords to play and wat to solo on...through alot of memorization of the keys and which chords make them up??

yep.

[austin99]

A progression in A G F E, is really close the very common progression Am G F E which is used in alot of latin songs, I think its the progression of Neil Youngs Like a Hurricane, among others, in that progression the solo is out of the A Minor Scale, if you are using an A chord you could use an A Major scale, it should fit, an A Minor Scale will also fit well and you can work between the two.

Songs don't have to fit into a scale, the Blues certainly does not, Hendrix's Hey Joe has a progression of C G D A E7 which does not fit into a key, it is a circle of 5ths, the following chord is the 5th of the previous chord and that song definitely works, the solo is out of the E Minor Pentatonic.

[judge_gideon]

The more advanced approach is to change scales each time the chord changes. This way, each chord has its own scale which adds color uniquely, and you don't have the problem of limiting yourself by selecting a single scale to blanket all the chords.

[Daniel#2]

When I Jam with friends I usualy play somthing along the lines of 12 bar blue I, IV, V. It keeps thing simple (shred the blues scale over that and your good to go).You can also try making up progressions that you can move from key to key easily and use them during a jam.