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Moving to the IV chord (i.e. the D chord) I might land on the F# (i.e. the 3rd of the D chord). But that already exists within my palette of notes, as it's part of A major pentatonic.
The interesting one is landing the 3rd of the V chord (i.e. the E chord) which is G#, which brings in an interesting sound from a note from outside my basic palette of notes.
take something as simple as Apache in A minor ... obviously there is an F natural in A minor not an F sharp but because the underlying chord changes to D major the F sharp being a third in D major sounds great ... then consider the bridge to the chorus Hank literally outlines the arpeggio of an F major dropping in to a B note which falls beautifully as a third on the next G major chord. So simple yet so melodic.
in this respect when planning a solo plan it without a guitar so you’re thinking in terms of notes ... not positions on the fretboard
Brad Shepik, what a player!
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
1) What is the home note? Listen to the progression. Where does it settle? You don’t need any theory for this - don’t look at the chords, just listen to the musical flow. Assuming this is a repeated progression played evenly over 4 bars with no accentuation, there can only be one answer. The home note is A. I suppose if it were played with 3 short chords before the bar, followed by a long G, and if that were the end of the piece, it would be in G, but under almost all other circumstances, this is in A. So A is the home note, the ‘tonic’ chord, the “i” chord. Don’t get swayed into thinking of it as the vi of C (unless you‘re a Nashville System devotee) or the ii of G - both of which are mathematically true, but musically irrelevant.
4) Is this progression 'modal'? This is crucial if you’re going to noodle correctly and not spoil the flavour of the progression. Modes confuse people. This is because, relatively speaking, every mode can be specified as a mode of any other mode. Eg, Dorian is the 2nd mode of Ionian. And Ionian is the 7th mode of Dorian. And it takes considerable brain power to get your head round this concept in real time as music is playing.
But here, we are not talking relatively, we are talking absolutely. So, absolutely speaking, we simply want to know whether this piece is in one of the three 'diatonic' minor modes, i.e. A Aeolian, A Dorian, A Phrygian, or maybe a 'non-diatonic' mode such as A Harmonic Minor or A Melodic Minor.
Assuming this is a diatonic piece, there are 3 choices - Aeolian, Dorian or Phrygian. Aeolian is the default one (it's called 'natural minor'). Dorian is a lighter mode (it has a raised note), and Phrygian is a darker mode (it has a lowered note). Which note is raised or lowered compared to Aeolian? Well, in the case of Dorian, the 6th note is raised. In the case of Phrygian, the 2nd note is lowered. Otherwise it's the default Aeolian with a major 2nd and minor 6th (B and F). So:
- if it were Aeolian, the iv chord would be minor (to allow a minor 6th on the tonic) and the bVII chord would be major (to allow a major 2nd on the tonic)
- if it were Dorian, the IV would be major, to force a raised 6th on the tonic, an F#. (The bVII would remain major like Aeolian)
- if it were Phrygian, the bvii would be minor, to force a lowered 2nd on the tonic, a Bb. (The iv would remain minor like Aeolian)
In your progression the bVII is major so it's not Phrygian. There's no iv chord, so we don't know if it's Aeolian or Dorian. So you can noodle throughout the progression in A Aeolian or A Dorian. Both sound nice. Aeolian sounds slightly darker / pessimistic / tragic; Dorian sounds slightly lighter / optimistic / funky / quirky.
5) So how to noodle? Now you can focus on the chord tones like others have said, or you can use lyrical / melodic methods to write your tune, which deserves its own thread. Actually for chord-tone writing you don’t strictly need step 4 above. But for melodic writing you do.
I hope that is helpful at least in part!
Supportact said: [my style is] probably more an accumulation of limitations and bad habits than a 'style'.
Start on the root note and then play the 3rd note in that scale and then a 3rd note higher. So you have the 1 3 5 (triad) from the root. Now do the same from the octave.
Now do the same from the 2nd note of the scale, now you will be playing the minor triad off the second note, then the 3rd note and so on.
Once you have done that in all 5 shapes. You have the triads down in every position.
Then do the same with 4 notes, i.e. 1 3 5 7.
Now you can think modes.
Obviously Dorian is the second mode of the major scale.
So I shift the pattern towards the neck by two frets so I can stay in the same root note and start on the second note of the shape and do the same again.
That way I play the the chord notes for the C Major scale, then the C Dorian, then I do the same for the phygian shape, etc.
It helps, if you have a metronome and the underlying chord changes in the background, so you can hear the triads/arppegios over the underlying chords. A free DAW such as cakewalk can really help here.
Then you can spice things up a bit. Rather than just going up the arppegios in order, try 1 5 3, then 1 3 5, then 3 5 1 then 5 3 1.
Suddenly you hear shades of Eric Johnson, especially when you start to join the CAGED shapes and go up and down the neck.