Purple Haze Chord Progression Mode?

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mrkbmrkb Frets: 6636
Hi, I’m trying to put some theory behind my playing and am stuck with the Purple Haze chord progression. As it has two Major chords which are a tone apart (the G and A) then they must be the IV and V of a D Major based mode - does that make it an E Dorian progression ( and the E7#9 has both major and minor third, so could be used as a substitution for Em which is needed for Dorian?) is this correct?

Could I play any E minor based mode over it as well as a E minor and Emajor Pentatonic?
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  • Modulus_AmpsModulus_Amps Frets: 2569
    tFB Trader
    I don't know about this stuff in any real depth, but I would go with what you are saying in terms of the Dorian mode, however as it is a three piece and you just have a bass guitar supporting you have a bit more harmonic Freedom..... so that's what  you need, so you can give.

    I would experiment with the minor and major third as well as the typical minor bluescale and chromatic runs too, as Hendrix liked his Chromatics
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  • stratman3142stratman3142 Frets: 2177
    edited December 2017
    When I improvise a solo on this song (assuming it's in the key of E), I predominantly think in terms of E minor pentatonic and might throw in the 2nd and 6th, which means it could be thought of as E Dorian. Plus you can obviously chuck in the bluesy b5 and some chromatics as passing notes.

    I might play a G# on the E chord. Then I'd move off it, because it generally sounds sour to my ear on most of the progression. The theory places me in the right zone, but then I follow my ears.

    Thinking E major pentatonic would give me more G# than I would want to use on this particular chord progression. So I'd think of it as temporarily adding G# to the minor pentatonic (or Dorian mode) if what I hear in my head led me to use that note.
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  • BarneyBarney Frets: 614
    I would use Em pentatonic or Dorian even
    The G and A chords are the 4 and 5 of Dmaj the E7#9 could be looked at as a E minor or dorian mode of D ...but probably all hendrix was thinking of was Em pentatonic mainly ...

    It's funny ..we try and break things down to make sense and probably when all this was wrote and played none of this would have been thought about :)
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  • jpfampsjpfamps Frets: 2723

    The solo isn't over the chords of the verse, but (from memory) E7#9, F# and D.

    The #9 chord was used by jazzers (eg Duke Ellington) as way of harmonizing the blues scale, and generally the minor 3rd is used in melodies over this chord, eg scales with minor 3rd in, so can functionly be considered a minor chord.

    Kenny Burrell use blues scale for the melody but a 7#9 chords for the harmony on these , Chilins Con Carne and Midnight Blue)

    Looking at the chords tones of F# and D you also have an F# in both these chords and a C# in the F#. These are both notes included in the E dorian scale, so you could use this as a basis for lead work over this progression. 

    Again from memory Hendrix uses extensively use an F# in the solo, not sure if he employs a C#.

    I generally don't employ a scale based approach (I've heard too much music where the soloist seems to think that as long as they playing the "right" scale they are making music), but like to know where the chord tones are.

    The chord tones for Em, A and G are also in the E dorian scale, so you could use this if you wanted to play lead of the verse chords.

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