Question About Soloing And Music Theory

[pedalsteelpaul]

If I am soloing on a country song (or going for a major pentatonic feel in other words) over say G maj , C maj , and D maj, would I switch from a G maj pent scale to a C maj pent scale to a D maj pent scale? or would I just use a G maj scale.

[Donna]

If I am soloing on a country song (or going for a major pentatonic feel in other words) over say G maj , C maj , and D maj, would I switch from a G maj pent scale to a C maj pent scale to a D maj pent scale? or would I just use a G maj scale.

Hey Paul,

This is from my good songwriting/lead guitarist buddy Tom Harkness:

Penta would fit more dark ( You crashed my pick-up kinda song) Major would fit the happy ( You cooked me diiner and opened my beer kinda song)

I hope that's some kind of help

[pedalsteelpaul]

ha! thanks, funny .

[Donna]

I thought so, too

And a good way to approach the question!

[davidmichael]

very nice !!!!

[berndgast]

I would suggest as a parallel method:

Record yourself singing the solo/improvised line and

finger it out. Music is not about thinking and playing scales.

Best Regards from Germany

Bernd Gast

[timewave]

You may also try a open E pent. form over the Gmaj7

[Rudi]

pedalsteelpaul,

In your example, most people would stick to Gmaj (modal). There is no reason not to change scale along with the chord changes though (I do it a lot).

Personally, I would ditch the pentatonic scale idea and go for a G mixolydian scale (mode really). This is a regular major scale but with a flattened 7th. Sounds sweet for a country type tune.

http://gosk.com/scales/mixolydian-scale-for-guitar.php

If playing the G mixolydian mode seems awkward, just play a regular Cmajor scale instead. This will produce all the right notes for G mixolydian.