How do you choose notes?

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64Firebird

64Firebird

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When I improvise a solo, I almost always use the miner pent scale, but I'll add in the notes of the chord I'm playing over. So, if I'm playing in the key of A, over an A7 chord, I'll use the A miner pent and add C# (the 3rd of A7). When the song goes to D7, I'll still play the A miner pent, but now I'll add F# (the 3rd of D7). The same goes for all the changes. I tend to really ride the notes that are in the chord, but not in the scale because they stand out and imply the changes.

What do you guys do?
 
good question. for me it depends on the tune, style, guitar, etc. For example, I've been playing a jazzy tune that really calls for jazzy arpegios and such with a neck humbucker or nylon string. However, I recently tried my strat on the tune and the sound begged for blues licks adding the b5 and b3 with heavy emphasis on the b5. Another example is a folksy sensitive chick song I did with a chick that I arranged to use a lot of chords with open strings. The solo was on my steel string and I found playing a lot of sus4 sus2 add9 arpegio type runs utizilizing open strings seemed to fit the bill.

At the same time, I never really pay attention to the actual note names and such unless someone asks or I'm trying to figure out a harmony. My best work comes when I just let my head go out there and don't pay attention at all. However, that's pretty rare and the gems are usually surrounded by mud.
 
I just practice my scales to warm up the fingers, hit record, and stand back to see what happens.
 
the notes choose the student grasshopper.....

use the force young skywalker.

seriously though, if you have a basic grasp of the keys and scales then you are all set. Just have at and capture the mood and the emotions
 
64Firebird said:
When I improvise a solo, I almost always use the miner pent scale, but I'll add in the notes of the chord I'm playing over. So, if I'm playing in the key of A, over an A7 chord, I'll use the A miner pent and add C# (the 3rd of A7). When the song goes to D7, I'll still play the A miner pent, but now I'll add F# (the 3rd of D7). The same goes for all the changes. I tend to really ride the notes that are in the chord, but not in the scale because they stand out and imply the changes.

What do you guys do?
Click to expand...

What does that mean in English?
 
It basically means he is thinking through the process and not releasing his thoughts into his fingers.

You must become one with the notes my young padiwan. "Reach out with your feelings".
 
I never have the faintest idea of what mode or scale or pattern I'm in, whether on guitar or sax. If someone comes up and asks what key I'm in, I rarely know. I usually have to stop and think about it for a second. I totally go by how it sounds in my head and that pretty much goes directly to my fingers without going thru any processing by the theory part of my brain. It's not that I don't know theory....I majored in composition once upon a time;....
but i just don't think that way. For me it's more like talking....you don't pay any attention to how your mouth and tongue form the sounds...you just do it.
 
I record a sample of the song that I will solo over.. I play it about 300 times while I solo. I usually jam in phrygian, mixolydian, lydian, or straight minor. But when I'm writing the solo, unless it absolutely calls for my signature style (which is rare), I will push myself to avoid scalar soloing, preferring to grab notes in odd places, either in the scale boxes or out.. It's all trial and error, until I have something that fits. Usually after 300 trials, I have a basic solo down.. then I spend a few weeks knocking off the excess garbage and removing stupid notes that come out as pure wanking. My solos always come out tasteful, never sound like other solos in my other songs and never resemble the snorefest that can come from just my improvisation.


When writing, I never use theory.. I could care less.. I shoot now and ask questions later.

Cy
 
I can't read or write music..


I just keep looping until I have something I like..


then I start punching..


and punching..


and punching..



punching..
 
Middleman said:
It basically means he is thinking through the process and not releasing his thoughts into his fingers.
Click to expand...


Man, I can relate to that.
 
Forgot all scales and boxes and licks and riffs and chords you know for a minute. Theory has a place, but it is in the communication and interaction between parts, not in the construction of melody.

Therefore, play a great melody first and worry about the rest later. If the bassist is listening, she'll take your lead. If it's in the studio, hey, change a chord to fit the solo afterwards. Maybe the song will need a obscure modulation to fit the solo. But write the melody first!

Make up some stupid exercises until you've broken out of the box for good. Like, say, what would Vernon Reid would play over the theme from Teletubbies? I had a bud in college, his band would jam to 'Mars' from Holst's The Planets. Everybody else probably has some crazy ideas too.
 
i try to, uhh, play the note i want to hear with the music at the time. i spend most of my time in major pure, minor pure, and harmonic minor, and ther rest is hard to say. i don't have the chops to do a crazy flailing chromatic run, or i would.
 
For years i have lifted licks (and entire lead rides) off records of my favorite artists. also, i have created some chops that i haven't heard other artists do. when i improvise a solo i go totally by feel...i pull from a wealth of licks i have stockpiled in my subconcious mind. with any luck i will flow and come up with something interesting...sometimes it will sound like a bunch of rehashed licks.

i think everyone hits slumps where nothing you play sounds good to you....but then at a later time you can listen to a recording when you were in that slump and think "hey, that dosen't sound bad at all"

i have no technical knowledge of proper scale names so to tell you the truth i can't say at any given time what scale im playing out of. our bass player is very knowledgable (major in music) and alot of times he will say something like "man, that was really cool how you switched from the so-and-so- scale to the so-and-so scale"

or he will tell me "man i like those augmented chords in that part of the song"

shit man, its all greek to me...i can't even tell you what key im playing in sometimes much less what an augmented chord is.
 
i guess i DO play out of 3 scales

the "blues scale", the "country scale", and the "lead over top of minor chord" scale"
 
jimistone said:
i guess i DO play out of 3 scales

the "blues scale", the "country scale", and the "lead over top of minor chord" scale"
Click to expand...

I know the blues scale (miner pent with the flat 5th added). When you say country scale I'm assuming that you mean the Major pent (in the key of A: A B C# E and F#) please correct me if I'm wrong. But, I haven heard of the lead over top miner chord scale, what's that?
 
Forgot all scales and boxes and licks and riffs and chords you know for a minute. Theory has a place, but it is in the communication and interaction between parts, not in the construction of melody.

I agree with this. Improv is just kicking out the licks that are inside you. Turning it loose. And that's the way I play guitar most of the time. But it is good thing if a person can give you a piece of music on chart or on tape... and you can use some theory to prepare or create a cool guitar solo. To be able to recognize an augmented cord and intentionally plan to put a whole not scale on top of it or something.

I think theory becomes more important for a guitarist when you start playing in orchestral type of settings..... or something along those lines. And definitely in the communication between trained musicians.

But if it's only rock n roll and I like it, like it....... then I just kick out what sounds good to me and appropriate at the time.
 
If you guys aren't using scales and chords, then how do you know what will sound good? Are you just playing notes at random and hoping for the best? I have a hard time believing that one.

I don't think about chords and scales when I play either, but I am aware of them. I don't think to my self "hey, I'm going to run up the diminished scale when the change from the I to the IV comes" I just do it.
 
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