Thank you Sir Richard! Hopefully I gave it some level of justice. Easy for me to be critical, there were some chops and SPACES that were left on the table. On to the next thing. Gotta keep playing!
Thanks for the super kind words sir, greatly appreciated! Go ahead and steal what I’ve already stolen (for sure). If in doubt, ride the pentatonic highway.
That was great Clint. As always, that was inspiring. Improv over a song that you wouldn’t have thought of improvising over ……… mmmm. Much food for thought there. Thanks Clint!
Ahh, that explains why it sounded like HOTRS. I wasn’t sure if that was coincidence or not. “House Jam” - I get it now.
Thanks Gordon! One of the things I forgot to do was return to the actual melody. Failing to do so made it more about the improve and less about the tune. Not the end of the world. Again, chops left on the table. LOL
Hey, have a go at it. Tackling a well known melody makes things easier. You can kind of wing it if you get lost.
EDIT: I had to search for a backing track that had a little more “rock 'n roll” attitude to it than the traditional progression.
Have a go folks, Clint is right.
But be wary.
Am, C, D, F, E7
You’re not improvising over a diatonic progression.
A minor pentatonic:
A, C, D, E, G
Might some of those notes clash with the chord tones?
A minor:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
Hazards to be aware of?
I have just answered a question about melody (which is what improvisation is after all) over progressions with borrowed chords - in the borrowed chords topic here. This is an example where one scale does not fit all.
Yeah, I agree for the most part. With improv you can kind of “Fake” the melody a bit (I certainly do), or insert fills and embellishment, but there is the “well known” melody of the song that might be slightly different.
@Richard_close2u , teacher teach us! Dust off that epi Masterbuilt and lay down some jams. We need you.
Cool beans Clint glad to see you jamming, clearly in acoustic groove lately, nice!
Am I right in thinking that we should avoid playing:
Dmaj D F# A - Look out not to play F note from Am as chord has F#
Fmaj - Look out not to play B note as chord has Bb?
I should clarify, not totally sure if I need to, but I had to borrow some notes from the major/minor scale to nail the actual melody. Is that what you are alluding to @Richard_close2u? You can’t get all the way there with just the Amin pentatonic scale. What’s cool is that when sussing out the melody the actual scale you are using can be the furthest thing from your mind.
Thanks Adrian! When I do get a chance to practice/play these days it’s usually with the acoustic. The backing track is just played in the background from the TV. I do miss my electrics.
Any chance grabbing those back anytime soon?
Yes sir. Most likely with my little Joyo practice amp.
That was a great little improv over the HOTR. You’re giving this little grasshopper ideas to add to the list to explore when I develop the necessary techniques.
Hi Clint,
I enjoyed it as the first of the day, I hope this is the “mood” of the day here ,… Greetings,…
You have the general concept okay Adi.
Check your analysis though.
Exactly that.
No.
Just so. Thinking in terms of a new scale each time a new chord comes along is too much thinking.
Yep definitely too late when I was thinking about it as Fmaj is F A C In that case:
Am A C E
Cmaj C E G
Dmaj D F# A
Fmaj FAC
E7 E G# B D
So strikes out it’s F# in D and G# in E7 correct? Or am I missing some other pieces here?
More …
The melody is virtually all A minor pentatonic apart from one occurrence of B over an Am chord and one of G# over an E7 chord.
Melody Tab / Notation:
Neck diagram:
Audio:
For most of the chords, A minor pentatonic or A natural minor will give what you want if you’re thinking of scales. Here, the A minor pentatonic scale is shown with the blue notes being those that make up the fuller A minor scale.
For the D major chord, the F# presents an issue. A minor penatonic is fine, for a fuller scale choice the F would need to be replaced by F#. (NB - this is actually A Dorian if you want that information).
For the E7 chord - used to give that strong resolution back to the tonic Am chord - the note G# is essential. Placing a major / dominant 7 chord as the V in a minor key is where the harmonic minor comes in. The 7th scale degree of the A minor scale (the note G) is raised a semitone (to the note G#). In terms of melody and improvising, when the harmonic minor is used to create the harmonic structure (chords) the melodic minor is used to create the melodic structure. Makes sense right? But rather than complicate things with that just here, simply use this diagram of note choices for the E7 chord. (NB F is also altered to F#).
That’s pretty much the heart and soul of if from the Amin pentatonic 5th position perspective. Do check out Justin’s approach from the video link I shared previously. It’s probably an easier entry point for most folks.
The fun for me is adding the pentatonic extensions and moving up and down the neck and finding doodle spots along the way. Wrong note? Bend it or move to the nearest half-step note. The 12th position and beyond (even where my cigar fingers tend to struggle) is especially fun.