How do you choose notes?

  • Thread starter Thread starter 64Firebird
  • Start date Start date
Oh man, that was funny!!! No, but seriously....

I love to solo in Mixo. I very rarely solo in pure major. Most often it's penta minor, pure minor, or mixo. My approach to constructing a solo really depends on the context of a song. If the song calls for an improvised type lead, I usually just sit in the box position and wail. If the songs calls for a more melodic approach, I usually "write" a solo part that follows the chords more. I wish I could do that when I improvise as well, but I'm just not there yet.

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Minimum, you have to know the Blues Scales to start on your journey of soloing. Major and minor scales too. Practice, practice, practice.

The other non scale effort you should make is to get any Van, Halen, Clapton, Jimmy Page, Sitriani (SP?), Dixie Dregs, Al Dimiola, Geroge Benson, Earl Klugh, any soloist in your style of music and learn to play their solos.

Once you have your bag of melodies however there is the next step which is "thinking in melody". You need to get to the point where you are talking with your fingers and hearing the melody just before you play it. You will need to know the neck extremely well to get to the note you hear. This starts out slow but over time you train your mind to talk with the fingers.

The hardest part about soloing is not what you are thinking about in terms of mechanics but getting your head in the right space at the right time to open up the emotional flow. Some days it happens some days you get artistic blocks.

When you get the blocks, turn it all off and go see a movie.
 
64Firebird said:
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.
Click to expand...

For me, a lot of it just comes from experience. Knowing what notes or combination of notes sound like over what chords or progressions, etc. When my playing is on, I can sometimes play what I hear in my head. But most of the time I just play off of what's coming out of the amp.
 
64Firebird said:
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.
Click to expand...

Yeah.... I think everyone plays scales of some sort most of the time. Often without knowing it at the time... and often without having a clue what a scale is.

For a lot of people who have played a long time....lead guitar is about playing the sounds on the guitar. Not music theory. The guitar becomes an expression of self or creativity. Not a bad way to play from an artistic perspective, and from a listening perspective. And I like to play that way. But I also like guitar players that can play with a predetermined plan that has some music theory already built in. Being able to do both makes one a little more versitile.
 
i choose notes by feel...then if that doesn't work i resort to theory. great combo.
 
Usually I just let it fly. Well for rock anyway. Knowing your blues/pentatonic all the way up the fretboard doesn't hurt.
Unless of course your playing jazz, where the damn key changes every 2 bars. Then you really should know your stuff, modes and whatnot.
 
If it sounds good it is good. Quit thinking so much. Your making my head hurt.
 
monstermaker said:
If it sounds good it is good. Quit thinking so much. Your making my head hurt.
Click to expand...

Thinking about music is just another way to enjoy it.
 
"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?"

64Firebird.,
like i said i don't know the names of scales....what i call the "lead over minor chord" scale is for example:
the slow intrumental that hendrix plays after purple haze at woodstock. its in Am and there is alot of octave playing in it....i learned it lick for lick and it was a very hard peice to get down because its not out of a basic blues scale. so, i had to actually play from a scale that i wasn't using (that always helps your playing)...i find myself pulling from that scale alot when im playing over minor chords.

Santana is another example of that type of scale (though its a more basic and simplistic approach to it)...black magic woman comes to mind.

examples of the country scale would be "ramblin man" by the allmans. Honky Tonk night time man...by skynyrd..."wonderful tonight" by clapton

*location of the country scale----if you are playing in G just play the E blues scale (with some slight modifications) and thats the G country scale*

i have alot of positions and patterns when im playing from the blues scale that arn't really part of that scale. mainly because i have a blues style that is based on very deep bending (simular to albert kings style) and i have to grab the string one fret below the "right" note on the fretboard to achieve the proper "scoop" of the bend. i bend up to notes 1 or 2 frets below where most guitar players would get the same note...but it dosen't sound the same. A very deep bend always sounds better than a slight bend IMO. It has taken me 26 years to get that style down to the point that its second nature and it flows.

i will add that i may pull licks from all of the above in one lead ride in any given genre of music (thats what im talking about when i say that sometimes i can flow)

....when the groove is right and the music comes out of you without you thinking about what your playing.....thats when you get to a higher plane and it is always a better performance than when you contrive a lead ride based on a learned scale and your fingers automatically go to the correct positions (where they have been a million times before)

im to the point where i can translate whats in my head pretty well through my instrument and amp...and im a better guitarist because of that.

it take many, many, hours of playing to get there though....at least for me it did.
 
Thanks for clearing that up jimistone. I don't really know theory either, just enough to communicate my ideas to other musicians (although, they always seem to think that I know it and I'm not going to tell them any different). But, it seems that a lot of people think that if they think about what they're doing, they will lose it. That's just not true!
 
I know the blues scale (miner pent with the flat 5th added).

When I think of a good blues scale.... I think of a major scale without using 2nd and 6th's. And with a flatted 3rd and 7th.

In key of A it becomes .... A C D E G

In C it becomes C Eflat F G Bflat
 
I think what jimistone might be talking about is the old "blues paradox": the fact that the minor blues scale has a minor third in it, while the typical blues chord progression is all dominant 7 chords, which have major thirds. Basically, according to classical theory, they don't go together. The thing is, it's those criss-crossed thirds that really create that classic blues sound.

Which leads me to agree with this:


kjam22 said:

For a lot of people who have played a long time....lead guitar is about playing the sounds on the guitar.
Click to expand...

Many of the licks I play aren't just "notes"; they are sounds unique to the guitar - double note bends and other such stuff that couldn't be easily translated to another instrument. So I guess it's more than just "note choice" - it's "color choice" or "sound choice".

Aaron
http://www.voodoovibe.com
 
Its all so complicated. You can actually do harmonic minor scale based solos over pentatonic minor and blues...
Usually what drives my solos are complimentary first off, and secondly move in the direction of the next chord change so that the two move fluidly together. Sometimes its through experimentation and sometimes its through working out the harmonization much as a composer would do in constructing a 4 part vocal harmony. But a properly contructed solo goes through several stages, varying the elements as to add dynamics and emotion. Using the dominant notes of the chords are the foundation of the solo, but using the secondary dominants move it towards the chord change, and then in Jazz all bets are off! :p


SoMm
 
Aaron Cheney said:


Many of the licks I play aren't just "notes"; they are sounds unique to the guitar - double note bends and other such stuff that couldn't be easily translated to another instrument. So I guess it's more than just "note choice" - it's "color choice" or "sound choice".
Click to expand...

I agree. You don't see many piano's with a whamy bar on them.
 
i have not grasp music theory yet...and i dont practice as much as i should...so i just play it blindly...and hope it sounds ok...it usually doesn't


even if it did...i could never play it again the same way..the rythym of the solo yes..but not the same notes



i really need to put my nose to the grindstone...because guitar is the on instrument that i wish i could be good at
 
let me try to explain to usual process of improvising a lead for me:

1. figure out where the hell the riff is going
2. think of all the chords (i think in terms of colour/mood rather than chord names, except when explaining a progression to someone)
3. pick a note in the chord, or at times, pick a note that causes a certain extra feeling along with the chord (like throwing a 7th on a major chord, for example)
4. let the note choose me, usually something not far from the note i'm already playing, thinking of the harmony with what is already going on and the number of frets up/down i would go to hit the note
5. hit the next note

length of notes/etc choose me more than i choose them, so to speak. i will repeat something with promise until i really start to get something working, and then i embellish it or come up with a series of parts.

bear in mind that i don't have the chops or experience yet for hardcore lead playing-this is just a synopsis of the processes i "think" through when playing a lead to something.

sometimes i find myself emulating guitarists' styles when playing, though i more commonly do this with vocals, not just pitch/enunciation/timbre, but little gimmicks most rock singers have (like rolling down x number of steps at the end of a passage-different singers tend to habitually pick different intervals to step down at the end of a line/stanza-i mix it up, and then i don't even know what i do with my own work-i just sing it)

hope that is helpful.
 
Now we're getting someplace! Everybody seems to choose notes pretty much the same way that I do, by the way they rub against the chord. All 12 notes are good (and even some in-between), it's about how you use them and the context you put them in. Even something that might seem totally wrong can be the thing that makes everybody put down their drinks, stop, look and listen.
 
Also keep in mind that the difference between a good note and a bad note is in the mind of the listener and he or she is relating the note or notes just played to what they heard seconds before so with a little creativty you can make the best of a clinker if you don't let it throw you.
 
Well, I think of it this way, say I'm playing over an A7. The chord is spelled A C# E and G, so those are all strong notes. You can play almost anything as long as you resolve it to one of those chord tones and it'll sound good.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top