Dominant 7 blues progressions, scales and arpeggios questions about mixing it up

nickp

Right, i'm no SRV and am not a fan of endless blues pentatonic widdling without generating some "interest".  So over a standard blues I recon I can mix up

pent minor

major pent

Dom7 arpeggios  

plus a bit of chromatacism

and also change the scales in my head when the chord changes so I'm targeting different b3rd, b5 etc.

I don't have a good source of arp based licks or even Major pentatonic licks to start the brain working so I@m having to play over an A7 vamp at the moment getting my head around the three arps/scales over the one chord before moving to the 4th and then ultimately the 5th.

Does anyone have a good source of Major pent licks or arps or even nice tracks to start learning so that I can expand my lick/phrase vocabulary at the same time.

or should I go hide in a dark room somewhere and drink special brew instead?

nocasternoproblem

Good place to start us Need Your Love So Bad - lots of tabs about. Peter Green stuff generally.

viz

If you want major pentas, ask kone guitarist.

thomasross20

This is actually a good thread. We should cover what you'd play over any Maj/min blues track

Phil_aka_Pip

If you have all 5 shapes of the minor pentatonic nailed, you can also use them as major pentatonics, eg A minor pentatonic = C major pentatonic.

In a simple 12-bar, try the I major pentatonic over the I chord, when you go to the IV chord try either the I minor pentatonic or the IV dominant, for a nice "sleazy" feel on the change

bingefeller

Something nice is to play major triads from the root of the chord you're playing over and the b7.  For example if you're playing over A7 then play A and G major triads.  

Phil_aka_Pip

@bingefeller cool - that would get you A11

bingefeller

Phil_aka_Pip said:

@bingefeller cool - that would get you A11

Yes it does.  They are known as a triad pair - two sets of triads that don't share any notes.

Another common thing to do is, if you're playing over a dom 7th chord, is to play minor pentatonic from the 5th of that chord.  Say you have A7, play Em pentatonic.  

viz

Or, and this is going to sound odd until you're used to it, if playing a dominant A7 (in other words, just about to resolve to the root key of D), try playing C minor pentatonic over that A7. This is the jazzers' technique of playing super locrian over the dominant.

When it does resolve to D, you can shuffle up a semitone and play C#minor penta.

thomasross20

Super Locrian! I'm still trying to matter my normal modes! Lol!

Brad

Larry is nicely mixing up some maj and min pents here, skip to 3:15...

When you get chance, watch every part of this interview/lesson lots of great advice for connecting I to IV...

Transcribe a lot of stuff yourself. BB King uses the major pentatonic a lot. Or some Larry Carlton and Robben Ford for a 'jazzier' approach.

However @nickp it sounds a little like you haven't quite got the scales/arps under your control yet to use them freely in the manner you want to. IMO licks will only paper over the cracks. Don't forget the mixolydian mode either (mode 5 of the major scale, or better still, viewed as the major scale with a b7). Really get these, the A7, D7 and E7 arps as well as the major and minor pentatonic shapes secure in one area of the fretboard (the 5th fret is nice area to do this). Over time this will allow you to see how all the scales/arps overlap in one area and importantly give any licks a proper context on the fretboard. Stay in this area till you really own it, don't rush.

The continuous scale and arpeggio exercise is a good one for smoothly playing the changes and working the various different sounds into your playing. And by god it'll get your brain working :-) works for me anyway!

Phil_aka_Pip

viz said:

Or, and this is going to sound odd until you're used to it, if playing a dominant A7 (in other words, just about to resolve to the root key of D), try playing C minor pentatonic over that A7. This is the jazzers' technique of playing super locrian over the dominant.

When it does resolve to D, you can shuffle up a semitone and play C#minor penta.

wow - I'm going to try that later on!

Brad

viz;795934" said:

When it does resolve to D, you can shuffle up a semitone and play C#minor penta.

C#minor pent over D7?

Phil_aka_Pip

A7 R 3 5 b7 A C# E G
Cm pent = C Eb F G Bb, wrt A that is b3 b5 b6 b7 b9, presumably the super locrian contains those intervals

C#m pent = C# E F# G# B, wrt D that is 7 9 3 #4 6 giving you a maj13#11 sound

Have I understood you correctly @viz?

viz

Yep that's it, it's a super locrian over the dominant and a lydian over the tonic. Brad, it's not a D7, it's a resolution to a D major (with a sharpened 4th in this case)

viz

Brad

@viz get ya now, didn't realise you were talking about a ii V I in D in your post. Of course, C#minor pent will give a Lydian flavour.

As the OP was asking about the blues, I had my Dominant I IV V hat on, hence my confusion Regarding the scale choice :-)

viz

Ah-ha, yes, no idea why I went into jazz. Just rambling I guess )

nickp

just picking back up on this after a long weekend.

@Brad - you are right i'm at the point of getting the dominant 7 arpeggios (4 shapes position 1) under my fingers - sequencing them.  I'm good with the 5 shapes of minor pentatonic and by extension the major pent but obv it requires a shift in thinking.

So as you say trying not to rush this phase.  Also over a straight A7 vamp I'm just trying to mix and start to integrate the different bits into a coherent whole before shifting on to look at the 1 to 1V change and ultimately bringing in the V chord.  

Just bought a Robben ford and matt schofield tab book to start learning some songs and getting my ear tuned in as well

this will take me the next 12 months and could be a lifetime of study as indicated by the replies to this thread so far!!!

I have tended to ignore BB and Peter green so will take a look there as well - bloody larry carlton is a step too far at the moment!!!

Phil_aka_Pip

nickp said:

larry carlton is a step too far at the moment!!!

good though, isn't he!

nickp

mind blowing @Phil_aka_Pip - bloody extended arpeggios.