Yep scales and pentas will always be useful. When slapping/soloing I normally stick to the circle of 5ths. As long as you stay within the circle, your solos would normally come out sounding right.

I was told once that the division of 8 notes in the scale was because most european musicians were able to clearly segregate 8 different notes in their voices...hence in parts of asia, like india for example their scales consist of some crazy amount of notes... rather like a fretless bass where you can actually play "in-between" notes. Understanding scales is actually easier if you break it down to intervals. let's take c major. c d e f g a b c in intervals: w w h w w w h (w=tone, h=half-step/semi-tone) hence using intervals... D major would then be: d e f# g a b c# d .... there you constructed the scale... of course then you can fit in the corresponsing keys attached to it..... maj-min-min-maj-maj-min-dim-maj ...... fitting this into c major... thus a song in the key of c major would then contain the following chords: C major D minor Emin Fmaj G Maj Amin Bdim

Hope this helps... and yay tgif ...mode exercises here I come.

edited to correct minor...

This post has been edited by stefanong: Sep 15 2006, 04:15 PM

I think the whole point of scales is that if you understand it, music, solos and whatever is just a series of intervals.... mathematical even. Kowing your scales and rudiments expands the available notes that you can grab and run with. So in essence theory, opens the door to a greater range of notes that you go wild with in your solos.

hey buster, those are fighting words there... Nah, I think the reason why both of them chopped their locks is that they couldn't get the right amount of frizzyness like their guitar hero Hendrix

This post has been edited by stefanong: Sep 18 2006, 04:52 PM

sorry mate, my music theory is a tad weak. I gave up playing piano at grade 7 and hence I only have partial music theory and even that I have given most of it back to my teacher.

I could be wrong but Minor keys are constucted with these intervals: w h w w h w w (w=whole step/tone, h=half-step/semi-tone) hence using intervals... D minor would then be: d e f g a bflat c d. Comparing major and minor scales, you would be able to spot relative minors. In this case D minor is the relative minor to F major (both have bflat in the key signature).

Problem with minor scales is that I think there are 3 divisions: natural, harmonic and melodic... this is where things get really hairy. For lack of time and space, you may want to read up on theory books or websites on these subjects to get yourself acquainted with the subject..of course the use of modes will soon come into the picture...minor sounding modes would probably be dorian, phyligian, aeolian...

other sifus here are much better on this subject.

whoah..easy there. anyway if its any consolation I'm not that good in guitar..heck I can't handle six so I play the bass..4 strings=much easier

Anyways, the dim in me earlier posts refer to diminished chords...you know Ddim or Cdim. Yes, the chord is constructed: R-flat3-flat5 however this is actually a simple diminished chord... the complete chord should be r-flat3-flat5-doubleflat7.. huh double flat 7? yep... so in a c dim chord you've got c-eflat-gflat-A (flat of b flat). So how do you even solo/scale over a dim chord?? easy you construct a diminished scale!

2 ways: w-h scale or h-w scale (whole step-half step)

w-h scale is constructed by alternating w and h...e.g. w-h-w-h-w-h-w-h which works out to be a R-3flat-5flat-6flat-7double flat-7-R

so a Cdim scale you can use to sound real (malmsteenish or neo-rockish..sorry I'm a bassist after all) would be

c-d-eflat-f-gflat-aflat-a-b-c

make sure you resolve this scale cos though it sounds really cool and mystical...it really sorta hangs.....soloing with minor scales...stick to learning your melodic minors....more useful and pleasant sounding....

hope this helps ya.

ooops...h-w scale is constructed...yeah you guessed it with alternating half and whole steps...

I too suffer from GAS.....*group hug*

This post has been edited by stefanong: Sep 21 2006, 03:06 PM