ajeanne

I'm just beginning to learn soloing and improvisation. I'm throughly confused. I understand that you should choose notes that are within the key of the song. So when writing a solo can you use more than one scale as long as the notes you play are within the key? Because all scales have overlapping notes. Also say I was using the C Major pentatonic scale to write a solo, can I use notes outside of this scale? Like notes that are in the C Major scale but not in the Pentatonic Scale?

Zaphod_Beeblebr

For this particular example you have to realise that the C major pentatonic scale is actually a subset of the notes of the C major scale. By playing C major pentatonic you're already playing C major.

This could get a little complicated but bear with me:

When you're playing over a backing track or something like that you can use any notes you want but the ones that are most likely to sound "safe" are the ones from the key. Now, the thing is, notes that are actually outside of the key are called accidentals; how you get to using those accidentals physically (i.e. different scales, crazy arpeggios, whatever) doesn't matter. In theory terms, they aren't from different scales they are accidentals and nothing else.

Physically you can think of them however you like but it's definitely important to know that if, for example, you're playing in C major you can use any notes you choose but if you use notes apart from C D E F G A B then you're using accidentals and nothing else.

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ajeanne

so does that mean if i was writing a solo in the key of C Major I could use notes from any scale as long as they were in the key of C? For instance could I use the G Major scale but not use F#?

Zaphod_Beeblebr

You can use any notes you want, nothing's actually stopping you from doing so, but the only notes that are in key are the ones from the C major scale. A key doesn't tell you what notes you can play, it just tells you what notes are in that key. Mostly people stick to notes that are in key because they're less likely to sound horribly dissonant but there is still the potential for some pretty nasty sounding intervals in there. No matter what you do you're going to have to listen and pay attention to what you're playing and the backing you're playing over and make choices about the notes you play at any point.

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bburritt1

Exactly! There is no rules! As long as it sounds good to you as a player then thats all that really matters. Doesnt matter if you go from C to Gb back to C shit play it!

(by the way i dont know what notes are or scales. I made my own scales based on the penatonic scale that i got from my one and only lesson. I dont recommend doing that...ever. Really limits you but doesnt. Ruins your chance as a studio player in most cases.)

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ProphetToJables

From my own playing, rules are meant to be broken, passing notes outside of your regular pentatonic are what make a listener pay attention and draw them in.

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