Scales for Soloing: Other pentatonics
By Darrin Koltow
MaximumMusician.com

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Other lessons in the Scales for Soloing series
Pentatonics
Other pentatonics
Blues

We're looking at scales to use for soloing. Here's the progression we're working with

||: C major, A minor, D minor, G7 :||

Last time we improvised over these chords using the C major pentatonic (see the newsletter archives for details, including the pentatonic pattern we used).

Is the C major pentatonic the only scale you can use over a progression in C major? Thankfully, no. We have many choices. Listen carefully to how this next scale plays over the aforementioned changes. This is the G major pentatonic:

The G major pentatonic has none of the notes -- F and C -- that could cause unacceptable dissonances. Specifically, the F, if present, would clash over a C major and A minor chord, and the C, if present, would clash over a G major and E minor chord.

Let's generalize this finding so we can play in other keys: if you know a phrase or progression or sub-progression is going to stay within a major key and not stray outside it, instead of playing the major pentatonic from the root of the key center (e.g. C penta within C major), play the major penta from the V of the key center (e.g. G penta). For D major, this means you would use the A major pentatonic pattern, and for G major, you'd use the D major pentatonic pattern.

Next time: improvising with the Blues

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