I actually played something good today.

[Jessie Sammler]

My friend is studying theory right now and is heavily into modes. He's playing along with Miles Davis' Kind of Blue and picking out the modes so he can solo over top of it. Today we played for a while and put on "So What", and I played D pentatonic over it, because I really only know my pentatonics.

Well, for some time now I've been "adding" notes that I thought sounded good -- E and B, primarily. Turns out that's Dorian, which explains why my friend sometimes looks at me while I'm playing and asks what Santana song I'm working on. I always shake my head because I have no idea what I'm playing.

So today I played Carlos Santana solos over Miles Davis, on a Flying V with a wah pedal.

 

[tc]

Re: I actually played something good today.

And youve got a new avatar as well.

I've been working on using my Pentatonics on everything...

http://somuchsound.blogspot.com/search/label/pentatonic

 

[Jessie Sammler]

Re: I actually played something good today.

Thanks for the link. I'm definitely going to spend some time there.

 

[Jay 77]

Re: I actually played something good today.

Dorian will do wonders for playing Maiden as well!

 

[rogermood]

Re: I actually played something good today.

Hi tc,
I see your all link. It is really fabulous.I teach something new here. I really enjoyed.
Thanks for sharing.

 

[Frantic_Rock]

Re: I actually played something good today.

Yes Dorian is one of the most popular scales out there. It's sad, but hip at the same time. Not too sad, not too hip.

Try adding a SHARP 7 instead of the FLAT 7. There's your melodic minor - the most popular scale in jazz. Works beautifully over a minor chord. Adds some "purple mystery" to a minor sound in my opinion.

So play D melodic minor over D minor chord.

Another thing you can try:

Instead of playing D minor Pentatonic over D minor: Also play A minor pentatonic over D minor. And then E minor pentatonic over D minor. So you are adding 2 more pentatonics: one off of the 5th degree and one off the 2nd degree. You get some different notes and flavors with those.
With the pentatonic off the 5th, you get a 9th. With the pentatonic off the 2nd, you get a 9th, and major 6th. You can do all your bends and licks in these 2 new pentatonics for compeltely different sound.

Check out my theory site if you wanna learn the melodic minor scales.
http://www.unlimitedlessons.com/content/melodic-minor-scale

There is tons of other stuff you can do: Play a Min7b5 arpeggio down a minor 3rd. So over D minor chord, play Bmin7b5 arpeggio. You will find that in the arpeggio section of the site.

Now try playing an F major 7 arpeggio over D minor. There's your D minor 9 arpeggio. Sounds "fresher" than just D min7 arpeggio.

You can also play various major triads in modal keys. experiment. So what is a good tune.