Pentatonic question

ArchtopDave

The answer to your original post is neither the Minor nor the Major Pentatonic is better as such. I assume that you're thinking about soloing over the E7 chord. Unfortunately, your first sentence is not to my mind valid since, unless you are playing a line entirely on it's own, then you're interacting with other instruments, and you're interacting with the chord sequence that you are playing over. Additionally if you are talking about a Blues Progression, then you have to accept that there are compromises to be made between Blues and Western Music Theory, since Blues did not develop within the framework of Western Music Theory.
Whether any particular scale is "correct" as per your post above can also be a matter of debate. Using particular scales, which provide an easy harmonic fit to the underlying chords to start with, provides a pathway on which to progress your understanding of playing, However, at the end of the day, it depends on how much dissonance you find acceptable, and what you'd like to achieve with your playing.

As Joe Pass once said "It doesn't matter what notes you play, it's how you resolve them that's important".

viz

ArchtopDave said:

The answer to your original post is neither the Minor nor the Major Pentatonic is better as such. I assume that you're thinking about soloing over the E7 chord. Unfortunately, your first sentence is not to my mind valid since, unless you are playing a line entirely on it's own, then you're interacting with other instruments, and you're interacting with the chord sequence that you are playing over. Additionally if you are talking about a Blues Progression, then you have to accept that there are compromises to be made between Blues and Western Music Theory, since Blues did not develop within the framework of Western Music Theory.
Whether any particular scale is "correct" as per your post above can also be a matter of debate. Using particular scales, which provide an easy harmonic fit to the underlying chords to start with, provides a pathway on which to progress your understanding of playing, However, at the end of the day, it depends on how much dissonance you find acceptable, and what you'd like to achieve with your playing.

As Joe Pass once said "It doesn't matter what notes you play, it's how you resolve them that's important".

Absolutely!

https://youtu.be/meha_FCcHbo

ArchtopDave

@viz  I'm entirely in agreement with Jacob Collier (and others) that you can play any note over any chord. It has been a bit of a journey getting there, and I think, as I alluded to above, it does depend to a degree on what you wish to achieve as a player, and how much dissonance one likes. It's taking up guitar playing that has led me to delight in the more complex chords, and I love bits of dissonance. No surprise then that I have come to be interested in the jazzier end of music, and it's associated level of Music Theory brain pain!!

viz

ArchtopDave said:

@viz  I'm entirely in agreement with Jacob Collier (and others) that you can play any note over any chord. It has been a bit of a journey getting there, and I think, as I alluded to above, it does depend to a degree on what you wish to achieve as a player, and how much dissonance one likes. It's taking up guitar playing that has led me to delight in the more complex chords, and I love bits of dissonance. No surprise then that I have come to be interested in the jazzier end of music, and it's associated level of Music Theory brain pain!!

Exactly! There’s a good thing where Collier talks to various people of different musical levels and he demonstrates one note fitting every random chord that he plays. And the bloke he’s talking to is astonished

viz

6:35

https://youtu.be/eRkgK4jfi6M