Hi Mike,
When I improvise, or play with others in a band setting and im asked to solo / jam or come up with a melody to something I always start with finding the key , and then playing the respective pentatonic scale over it. What I then do is listen to the music and add notes outside the pentatonics. These notes are usually notes from the dorian, natural minor, harmonic minor and also ofc the blue notes. So my question is quite unclear but what im trying to figure out is if this is a good way to approach scales and improvisation. What I basically do is have a safe place (pentatonics ) and then I use my ears and find notes that I can blend in. Is this a valid way of approaching improvisation. Ill add to this, that I listen and like to play music that is very pentatonic dominant. Blues, rock, funk and similar.
Thanks
Amber
hey Amber,
you’re onto the right track using pentatonic scales. There are many facets to improvisation, for me what works best is knowing the fretboard really well so you know what notes your playing therefore are always in key (if that’s what you want) rather than guessing and knowing a set of patterns such as the pentatonic scales. The issue with the first one is that it takes a truck load of practice, time and can be extremely difficult when keys constantly change in a piece. Having patterns stored in memory is a great way to manoeuvre around the guitar but there are so many to remember. Besides the pentatonic scales, to increase note selection maybe the next step is to check out the modal guitar scales (patterns) and if you want to move up the fretboard look at the patterns with different starting (root) points… there is always something to learn
Hope this helps a bit
Mike