Soloing over an E major, D major progression

[Mr Songwriter]

I'm talking about a progression where the rhythm guitar is alternating between the E major chord and the D major chord once every couple of seconds (Yes, I do realise that it's not the most complicated chord progression in the history of music ) what scales would be appropriate to play over that, and are there any notes that I should add or miss out when I change from one chord to the other?

[pop tarts]

they're both in the A major scale. that might work. f# minor, i believe as well. futz around. explore. you might find other things that work.

[Mr Songwriter]

they're both in the A major scale. that might work. f# minor, i believe as well. futz around. explore. you might find other things that work.

 

 

Ta, I hadn't thought of F# minor. I mostly play pentatonics so I guess I could play E mnor pentatonic if I changed the progression to E5, D5.

[alwaysharp]

D Lydian would sound great over this. Of course, that's just A major as someone already mentioned. But, a cool way to get this sound, try playing C#minor pentatonic.

[Mr Songwriter]

D Lydian would sound great over this. Of course, that's just A major as someone already mentioned. But, a cool way to get this sound, try playing C#minor pentatonic.

Yup, A major sounds good, I tried C# minor pentatonic and it sounded good too, providing I didn't emphasise the Ab too much over the D chord.

[Stackabones]

If there is a melody, use that ... add and subtract from the melody.

 

If there is no melody, don't worry ... just noodle away. No one's paying attention anyway.

[alwaysharp]

Yup, A major sounds good, I tried C# minor pentatonic and it sounded good too, providing I didn't emphasise the Ab too much over the D chord.

Oh baby, that G#(Ab) is the sweetest note of the bunch. I would add that you can almost always get away with a blues lick or two.

[Mr Songwriter]

Oh baby, that G#(Ab) is the sweetest note of the bunch. I would add that you can almost always get away with a blues lick or two.

Yup, most of my lead playing so far has been Blues Rock based, so it's kind of hard to avoid sounding somewhat Bluesy. RE: the G#/Ab, when I play the C# minor pentatonic with that progression I seem to end up playing it like an E major pentatonic scale (i.e. I find myself pivoting round the E rather than the C#) so it's kind of hard to use the G# over the D chord without it sounding dissonant. I'm still not that good at mixing up major and minor pentatonic scales.

Stackabones: I'm trying to learn more about lead because I've started playing in a band that does a lot of jamming, and there isn't usually much in the way of melody to go off, but that is probably a better way of thinking about lead playing, create a melody first and then work from there. I just need to get the theory down first.

[Stackabones]

Theory won't help you much with creating melodies imo. It does wonders for analyzing them, but theory isn't the most effective creative tool. It has its uses, and it should be learned, but it isn't the wonder drug for creativity or even the fix-it-all for creative issues.

 

Even the greatest chops wizard with a head full of theory & scales will fall into noodling if no melody is available ... or at the very least the ability in creating a melody on the spot and then improvising around it.

 

I've been in jam band situations. The worst players were the ones who had no concept of song form and no melodic imagination ... and some of them could talk theory for days, but couldn't find stitch together one melody from the noodling. Lots of finger wiggling, but nothing else.

 

It was always a joy to play/jam with folks who could actually write songs and not just solo over songs ... they usually had the most fertile ideas for jamming. Anyone can put two chords together, but show me the melody over those two chords and then something interesting can happen.

[gennation]

Using them as E7 and Dmaj7, yes the A Major scale (F# Minor, E Mixo, D Lydian...whatever you want to call it) will work fine.

 

But if it's Blues based...

 

Try them as E7 and D7, then use...

 

E Mixolydian and D Lydian Dom

 

You can think of the whole thing as E Mixolydian with a #5 ADDED, meaning...keep the Perfect 5th and the 6th. So E F# G# A B C D

 

This will give you some outside notes going, giving you a little more forward motion than just playing the same scale for both of them, like you are using A Major.

[TheGareth]

If this was me I'd probably use D lydian as has already been suggested. I'd perhaps try to play some arpeggio licks in there too.

[Mr Songwriter]

Thanks a lot everyone, that's brilliant, you've given me loads to think about, using 7th chords does sound interesting.