The Hold Steady's Chill Out Tent: What scale would I use?

I'd work a plain ole pent/A in there, somewhere...

Cat

I'd work a plain ole pent/A in there, somewhere...

Cat
Thanks man. Pentonic A scale? I'll try that out.

How'd you come up with that? Is there some kind of a rule? I gotta get into music theory.

Everything works in G with those chords so I'd go with G Major rather than A. The only exception is with the E chord - emphasise a G# there rather than G natural.

Okay...another musically insane idea! Cool...trying it now...

I use an A pent because that's what I feel...but them's pretty ubiquitous chords...so it all depends where you are coming from and going to! Heck...there's only 12 notes...try 'em all!

Cat

Both of them will work.

That's because the tune is made up of all power chords. Power chords aren't major or minor; they can stand in for either. The actual notes in the power chords are E, B, D, A, C, and G... line those up and you have A, C, D, E, G, B.

Cat's suggestion (A pentatonic minor) is A C D E G - all chord tones except the B note (which only appears in the verse, as part of the E5 chord)

Alan's suggestion (G pentatonic major, which has the same notes as E pentatonic minor) is E G A B D - that's everything except the C, which only shows up in the chorus.

Since the song has only six notes in the power chords, lots of scales will work.

Or you could mix them, and play Am over the verse and Em over the chorus.

See...ya came to the right place!

Cat

Thanks guys, I learned the A penta last night. later today I'll try doing that, then I'll learn the g.

I have very little experiance soloing or playing lead. I think the only other song I know how to play lead on is Cat Steven's father and son? there, the lead guitar player was improvising on the record, so I learned how to kind of mimick what he was doing on certain spots.

I think this song will be similiar in terms of how I approach it.

Other songs like Day tripper, I played the lead on but that was pretty straight foward. I didn't have to learn a scale or anything, I just got the tabs. this hold steady song doesn't have lead guitar, they have an organ player, but not lead.

So I appreaciate the help.

... the lead guitar player was improvising on the record, so I learned how to kind of mimick what he was doing on certain spots.

Yep - that's the way to do it.