Members Anth2010 Posted March 9, 2008 Members Posted March 9, 2008 I'm in a band with one hell of a good keyboard player, and he has come up with a pretty cool chord progression, C - Eb - F - Ab. My only problem is which scale is best to solo over it?
Members Virgman Posted March 9, 2008 Members Posted March 9, 2008 Cm (C-Aeolian) sounds pretty good (Key of Eb). Try it. See what you think.
Members Jasco Posted March 9, 2008 Members Posted March 9, 2008 I'm in a band with one hell of a good keyboard player, and he has come up with a pretty cool chord progression, C - Eb - F - Ab. My only problem is which scale is best to solo over it? All Major chords? Technically they're not in the same key, but try C minor pentatonic or F minor pentatonic. Or use a chord tone approach to soloing and just follow the chords. Also you might try making the C and F minor chords and listen to find out if that sounds good to your ear. Cm - Eb - Fm - Ab
Members gennation Posted March 9, 2008 Members Posted March 9, 2008 I'm in a band with one hell of a good keyboard player, and he has come up with a pretty cool chord progression, C - Eb - F - Ab. My only problem is which scale is best to solo over it? This is another great example of "find out what the chords are telling you"... You haven't told us whether these are power chords, major or minor chords, or even how long each chord lasts...but from your vague explanation of the chord progression you can get a solid scale that will fit it all...all without know too much about theory... From the vague progression you posted I know each chord has a Root and a 5th. Since you have specified major or minor I won't even worry about it out of the box. I'm just going to go on Root/5th chords... C = C GEb = Eb BbF = F CAb = Ab Eb Taking out the common notes I get: C G Eb Bb F Ab Lining them up linearly like a scale I get (since it all comes back to C): C Eb F G Ab Bb These notes create a C Natural Minor scale. But, you DON'T NEED to know that. All you need to no that those are the notes contains in the progression, even as a very vague progression. So, without even caring what the "scale name" is, in a lot of cases you ONLY need to look at basic notes within chords. This is true for A LOT of rock/jam/blues type music. In your case all the chords revolve around a common Key point, but if you had found a note that was out of place from a common scale/Key point, you'd ONY use that odd note when it's over the chord that contains it. But this is not your case since this is all in one Key point. So, the chords determine the scale...NOT the scale name.
Poparad Posted March 10, 2008 Posted March 10, 2008 There's two choices you could go with, but the context of the progression will have a lot to do with which one is more correct, as well as how everyone else in the band is treating it. Option 1: Parallel approach Since the entire progression won't fit into one key (or even two keys), and all the chords are of the same type (all major chords), you could play the same kind of scale for each chord. For example, C major for C major, Eb major for Eb major, etc. The major scale isn't the only choice, though. Progressions like this are also commonly treated like dominant seventh chords (i.e., C7 Eb7 F7 Ab7), so you could go with C mixolydian, Eb mixolydian, etc. How everyone else in the band is playing these will effect the ultimate 'correct' choice. Option 2: Common note approach With this approach, which is more common and probably what I would go with, you'll want to change as few notes as possible between chords and keep as many common notes between the scale to create a sense of unity within the progression. For the first chord, C, a good starting place would be the C major scale. For each following chord, just simply change the notes that the chord itself requires in order to fit into the key: C D E F G A B C | |C D Eb F G A Bb C C D Eb F G A Bb C |C D Eb F G Ab Bb C The end results would be C major, Eb lydian (Bb major), F mixolydian (also Bb major), and Ab lydian (Eb major). This isn't the only solution, as you can change the 'in between notes' (the notes of the scale that aren't part of the chord) as you see fit. The result would involve more note changes, but might fit better.
Members jonfinn Posted March 10, 2008 Members Posted March 10, 2008 I'm in a band with one hell of a good keyboard player, and he has come up with a pretty cool chord progression, C - Eb - F - Ab. My only problem is which scale is best to solo over it? Try these approaches: 1) Cminor pentatonic over the whole thing. It just works. 2) Cmaj pentatonic over the C and F chords, Cmin pentatonic over the Eb and Ab chords 3) C Ionian over the C and F chords (tho it might come out like FLydian over the F chord... same notes....), C Aeolian over the Eb and Ab chords 4) C Lydian, Eb Lydian, F Lydian, Ab Lydian 5) Put a blindfold on and play whatever note the universe tells you to 6) Play only the notes that smell like fish 7) Don't over-think the scales and just focus on what sounds good to you.
Mark Wein Posted March 10, 2008 Posted March 10, 2008 6) Play only the notes that smell like fish Freshwater or saltwater?
Members Anth2010 Posted March 10, 2008 Author Members Posted March 10, 2008 Thanks for the replies guys. Think I'm just gonna let my nose smell the fish though, great advice
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