What scale to use?

Hey everyone,

I have a scale question. I have been trying to use the major scale more and I have a simple progression of Am, C, G, Am. I just got a looper (MXR Clone Looper) and laid down the progression and thought I would be able to play the G major scale over top. Some notes don't work and I found myself going back to A pentatonic which seemed to work well. Should that progression be G major? [br][br]

thanks Lee

Originally Posted by: l.pearson1825

I have a scale question. I have been trying to use the major scale more and I have a simple progression of Am, C, G, Am.

You figure out the key signature by writing out or considering all the notes in all the chords being used, put them in order to see what scale they make.

Am: a-c-e

C: c-e-g

G: g-b-d

a-b-c-d-e-g (A minor scale missing the note F)

c-d-e-g-a-b (C major scale missing F)

g-a-b-c-d-e (G major scale missing F#)

Because your chords don't specify F or F# it could either. You can use either & see which you prefer. Or you can just play either of those & avoid the F or F# all together.

So you have these options:

Key of A minor:

Am (i) / C (bIII) / G (bVII) / Am (i)

Key of C major:

Am (vi) / C (I) / G (V) / Am (vi)

Key of G major:

Am (ii) / C (IV) / G (I) / Am (ii)

It sounds like A minor to me because you start &, more importantly, end on that chord. But it could be any of them depending on the melody you play or sing over those chords.

I cover the process of figuring out the key signature & then learning how to use it to play solos in this collection of tutorials on improvisation.

https://www.guitartricks.com/collection/learning-to-improvise

Hope that helps!

Such great information. Thank you so much.

Originally Posted by: l.pearson1825

Such great information. Thank you so much.

You're welcome!

I just got a valuable mini lesson- great answer! My understanding is that the root note matters and how the melody goes. Chords and keys are not always a science- more of a guide like GPS in a car. You have to judge feel, tonal centers and other things. Some of the best sounding tunes and solo's are technically incorrect- but sound oh so right!..sort of like life.

One question, if I can dovetail and maybe it will also help the OP is this... You say they are the same notes, but doesn't the major scale contain 2 extra notes? Like you said, the F and the F#, he is best to avoid. I have found that in a major key, the mPenta almost always works- but it doesn't rarely works going the other way around.

Originally Posted by: SRVFan2000Chords and keys are not always a science- more of a guide like GPS in a car. You have to judge feel, tonal centers and other things.[/quote]

Yes, there are many possible options. And any given major or minor chord has 3 possible chord tones to pick from when you are soloing.

One of the interesting things in this option is something that happens often in music: an entire scale is not outlined, but just suggested. So there are even more options available.

Originally Posted by: SRVFan2000Some of the best sounding tunes and solo's are technically incorrect- but sound oh so right![/quote]

I think I get what you mean here. But I want to clarify that you can play any note at any time. This is music, so the sound is primary. If you like the sound of that note in that place, then it is the right note for you to play.

I'm not sure what you mean by technically incorrect. A note might be out of key, but there is a reason that any given note sounds the way it does. The reason is the interval relationship the note has to the key signature & the chord you are playing it over. It's important to learn that stuff so you can play the notes you desire in order to create the sounds you desire.

[quote=SRVFan2000]You say they are the same notes, but doesn't the major scale contain 2 extra notes?

Yes, but it depends on which one you decide is the root note, because then you have a different system of scale degrees.

The reason there is possible confusion here is precisely because there is not a complete diatonic scale specified by the chords. All the notes in all those chords only spell out 6 notes. A complete diatonic major or minor scale has 7 notes. So, it could be either of these:

A minor

a (1) b (2) c (3) d (4) e (5) g (7) (which is missing the F as the 6th scale degree)

C major

c (1) d (2) e (3) g (5) a (6) b (7) (which is missing the F as the 4th scale degree)

G major

g (1) a (2) b (3) c (4) d (5) e (6) (which is missing the F# as the 7th scale degree)

[quote=SRVFan2000]Like you said, the F and the F#, he is best to avoid.

No, I didn't say it was best to avoid them. I said you can avoid them if you prefer or you use either & see which you prefer. In fact if you try both you might find that you prefer one or the other & that will show you which key you want to play in.

Hope that helps!