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soloing in minor keys?


thetrooper9

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Posted

im a little confused about what scales to use in minor keys. correct me if i am wrong. lets say im soloing over a song thats in the key of E minor i can play e minor pent, dorian and aeolian?

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Posted

Yes you are on it ... you can use Phrygian as well.

 

Personally to me the selection of notes or scales shapes I select more pertains to the chord you are playing over. I treat each chord change as essentially a key change and use scales befitting of each individual chord. Then I can also pop in and out of the "Mother Key" per se as I want.

 

Ultimately you want to get to where you dont have to think ... but first you have to think and learn the patterns. After time and practice it gets more intuitive.

 

Good luck!

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Posted

If really in a Minor Key you would use Natural Minor, but Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor would come into play too.

 

Are you playing over one chord? If so, you can find a scale a use it basically. You may or may not even be able to use combinations of scales, or use might only a few notes as a scale.

 

Many times when you hear players playing over one minor chord they leave out the 6th, this way you get a solid Minor scale without any particular note telling you it's Dorian or Aeolian.

 

For a "less is best" solo you can try this great Dorian solo from Miles Davis, and notice how he really hangs out on only a couple of notes (R b3 4 5) for pretty much the whole opening section, and then when he does move on he sticks in some M7 to create some tension: http://lessons.mikedodge.com/lessons/Transcriptions/SoWhatTrumpetSolo.htm

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Posted

It depends on what specific harmonies you are soloing over but...You would generally be able to play any of the following to varying degrees note-wise, and any modes thereof (depending on the exact chords):

 

Dorian (b3,b7)

Phyrgian (b2,b3,b6,b7)

Aeolian (b3,b6,b7)

Harmonic Minor (b3,b6)

Dorian with raised seven a.k.a. min/Maj7 a.k.a. Melodic Minor Scale (b3)

*note some people play the Melodic Minor as "b3 when ascending but b3,b6,b7 when descending".

Minor Pentatonic (E G A B D)

Blues Scale (E G A Bb B D)

 

And not just on the root, i.e. you could use the E minor pentatonic but you could also use the B minor penatonic (B D E F# A) or A minor pentatonic (A C D E G) and so forth. When you work them out of course you'll find some easier to apply than others.

 

The reason it's good to know/hear what you're soloing over is that there are also other odd context-specific possibilites, i.e. Locrian (b2,b3,b5,b6,b7) and Altered (b2,b3,b4,b5,b6,b7) may be possible, etc. -- depending on what's there. You can leverage all sorts of stuff sometimes, even exotic scales like a pseudo-Balinese (E F G B C). :)

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