Soloing over these chords

Gulliver

Here's the chord sequence:

Dmaj7 | Am7 | Gmaj7 | C9

Dmaj7 | Am7 | Gmaj7 | G/A

Help me understand what to do here - because the Am7 - Gmaj7 - C9  looks like a ii-V-I, but the Bb in the C9 makes me doubt it (and I don't really know what I'm doing with a ii-V-I)

Any help greatly appreciated!

greejn

Just use the chord arpeggio for each chord? Or:

Bm pentatonic, Am pentatonic, D major, C Blues or D major for last chord

greejn

There is no ii-V-I in that sequence.

viz

So. 

It’s in D, and has a D major chord to start with. 

So you can play the notes from D major, or D major pentatonic. 

The A minor chord confusingly flips it to D mixolydian, so lower that maj7 to a b7. (Or just stick with D major pentatonic, which is very flexible and works with D major and D mixolydian)

The the G chord is fine, that’s just a IV chord. 

Then the C accentuates the mixolydian nature of the D chord. But because it’s a 9 chord, it also has a b7, which is a b6 of the D chord, whereas D major penta uses a a major 6th. 

So I’d probably just noodle in D major penta throughout apart from the C chord where I’d slip down a tone to C major penta. Or I’d do the arpeggios for each chord as mentioned above. 

Love the compound chord at the end, which you can play as x0000x if you like. 

axisus

viz said:

So. 

It’s in D, and has a D major chord to start with. 

So you can play the notes from D major, or D major pentatonic. 

The A minor chord confusingly flips it to D mixolydian, so lower that maj7 to a b7. (Or just stick with D major pentatonic, which is very flexible and works with D major and D mixolydian)

The the G chord is fine, that’s just a IV chord. 

Then the C accentuates the mixolydian nature of the D chord. But because it’s a 9 chord, it also has a b7, which is a b6 of the D chord, whereas D major penta uses a a major 6th. 

So I’d probably just noodle in D major penta throughout apart from the C chord where I’d slip down a tone to C major penta. Or I’d do the arpeggios for each chord as mentioned above. 

Love the compound chord at the end, which you can play as x0000x if you like. 

It blows me away that people can analyse like that!

Cranky

Wonder how this would sound in drop D.  Could even add an extra bassy A to the last chord more easily.

Blueingreen

Theres a nice chromatic descent in the first 4 chords with the c sharp (maj 7 in the D chord), c (m3 in the Am), b (maj 3 in the G) and Bb (m7 in the C9). The C and Bb are interesting notes because they are outside the D major scale.  If I was soloing over this I'd be tempted to target those notes. Not the most original idea but I think it could be effective.

Danny1969

I don't tend to think of a scale  / mode even though I know how to when tackling this kind of thing, I play the chord and try a melody line at the same time. A great melody is always in the chords. It's a nice sequence but I prefer a Cadd9 rather than the C9

Brad

Depends how deep you want to go with it, and it can get pretty deep! A lot depends on the tempo and how long each chord lasts. 2 bars on each chord at a slow tempo will require a different approach compared to 2 chords per bar at a quick tempo…

D maj Pentatonic will work fine over everything… even the C9 with careful use of the B natural. You can include the b3(F) to enhance the C9 chord when the time comes, you could think of that as the B Blues scale. 

As mentioned above, you could then use different arpeggios and pentatonics to begin outlining the changes of the non diatonic chords. 

Dmaj Pent for Dmaj7, Gmaj7 and G/A

Am Pent for Am7

Cmaj Pent for C9 

If one wants to get further into the sounds there are other pentatonics that can be used to enhance the character of each chord. But you may run the risk of being swamped by options. 

And to do just that…

You can look into modes:

Dmaj7 - D Ionian
Am7 - A Dorian
Gmaj7 - G Lydian or G Ionian to retain the note C that could’ve been established in the previous chord. 
C9** - C Mixolydian
G/A - A Mixolydian

Be aware that D Ionian, G Lydian and A Mixolydian are in fact the same pool of notes so it’s important to hit the chord tones. 

That being said, instead of thinking modally, you could just think D major scale and adjust the relevant tones when the time comes. Make C# a C when you’re on Am7, flatten C#, F# and B on C9 etc. 

** an extra choice over C9 is the Lydian b7 scale, mode 4 of melodic minor. 

And after all that, Dmaj Pentatonic will work fine and just try and make music  

guitarjack66

viz said:

So. 

It’s in D, and has a D major chord to start with. 

So you can play the notes from D major, or D major pentatonic. 

The A minor chord confusingly flips it to D mixolydian, so lower that maj7 to a b7. (Or just stick with D major pentatonic, which is very flexible and works with D major and D mixolydian)

The the G chord is fine, that’s just a IV chord. 

Then the C accentuates the mixolydian nature of the D chord. But because it’s a 9 chord, it also has a b7, which is a b6 of the D chord, whereas D major penta uses a a major 6th. 

So I’d probably just noodle in D major penta throughout apart from the C chord where I’d slip down a tone to C major penta. Or I’d do the arpeggios for each chord as mentioned above. 

Love the compound chord at the end, which you can play as x0000x if you like. 

I often play that x0000x chord up and down the neck while I'm noodling but had no idea what it was. I thought it was some form of a G chord?

stickyfiddle

Stop worrying about theory before you play anything. Put the guitar down and hum/whistle a few melodies over the chords until you find something you like.

Very often basing something around the chord tones (ie notes within each chord) and/or the vocal melody will work well. But I'd strongly focus about getting a melody that fits based on instinct rather than what technically works on paper. 

viz

^ oh yes. He’s right. That’s my golden rule too, and I forgot it! And by that way, the descending chromatic run that Blueingreen mentioned will probably pop into your head because it’s a really clear tune within the chords. 

stickyfiddle

viz said:

^ oh yes. He’s right. That’s my golden rule too, and I forgot it! And by that way, the descending chromatic run that Blueingreen mentioned will probably pop into your head because it’s a really clear tune within the chords. 

Haha I knew you knew really  

th22

You can think of A Minor to G major7 as a II V I in G Major (just missing the V). 

Eg:

I A-7 D7 I G maj 7 I

Similarly the C9 at the end is implying a common 'Hollywood or Back door'  II V back to D (missing the II).

Eg I G-7 C7I Dmaj7I


When improvising you can think of the whole structure as 

I Dmaj7  I A-7 D7 I  Gmaj7 I  G-7 C7 I

The second ending (G/A) is substitute V chord of D (A9/11)

Ps sorry- just noted you mentioned not being comfortable with II V I’s. As mentioned above, arpeggios rule!