Using the major scale

I think you've fallen into the pentatonic trap. You've got used to the sound of them and moving outside them feels a bit alien.
Pentatonic scales have a unique sound for a simple reason. They have NO semitones or half-steps. Melodies often move by step and those steps in most song melodies are tones and semitones. But playing strictly within a pentatonic scale means those steps are whole tones and minor 3rds. That gives a very unique sound which is very easy on the ears (and also the fingers). It gets a bit 'samey' though and I don't know of any professional guitarist who would stay strictly within a pentatonic scale.

So, I think it's the presence of semitones that's putting you off, not the two extra notes themselves.

For example If you decided to solo over a C-F-G7 progression in C major, using the C major scale instead of C pentatonic major, your two extra notes are F & B. When the chord changes to F major, or G7, the note F will fit in perfectly. It's already there in those chords so it can't possibly add any bad effect. Same goes for B during the G7.

d I don't know of any professional guitarist who would stay strictly within a pentatonic scale.
:P I heard Zack Wylde stays there.

But anyhow, eh, I think you are right, I think I should get used to using full scales, but I dunno they seem to sound alien to everybody, well everybody is my group of friends who only listen to blues and rock. Hmm....

So why would semitones put me off ? O_O

So why would semitones put me off ? O_O

Because you'got used to living without them. Like I said, they're completely absent from our two 'standard' pentatonic scales. Most song melodies have lots of semitones, but strict pentatonic solos don't have any. That's what gives them that 'pentatonic' sound (Think Amazing Grace for an example of a pentatonic vocal melody).

Including semitones as a result of using 7 note major or minor scales or modes changes the sound quite a bit from the pentatonic sound. They might not suit the kind of typical rock solo you have in mind, but there are a lot more styles that they suit perfectly.

Yeah you are definetly right.

Rock ( typical rock solo ) doesn't sound that hot with the semitones, well I could use them, but use them less, I don't like to play rock that much anyway.

So right now I was in my class, and I told my teacher I wanted to jam to test how the whole semitone thing.

So he showed me some kind of latin rhythm, it was {Am,G7,C} ( 1 beat A m, one beat G7 and 2 beats C, then Dm, F, E7 ( same beats as the first )
And that repeated.

It is very famous, I'm sure I had heard it somewhere before, so he showed me this and showed me the little riff this thing has and told me after I did that we could improvise.

So I used the I'm pretty sure its harmonic minor which has the maj 7, or melodic, whatever.

It sounded like I had been playing that kind of music for a long time, it fit perfectly!

So now my theory is: If I want to make another typical rock solo, use a pentatonic, if I want to change it up a bit, go with the semitones!

I'm just developing my style xD.

i asked a similar question a few months back, and while i am certainly no expert, i am seeing improvement.

i tend to think in terms of chord tones now, and choose my notes accordingly when i play. This takes some planning for me at this stage but ultimately, when i finish a solo i will look at the notes in it and see that, because i have used chord tone notes (and extensions - 7ths etc), i have, without thinking, used all the notes of the major scale. i guess it is just a different way of approaching it - but now at least, my extra (non pentatonic notes) do not sound out of place when i play them, in fact they sound quite strong.

if i had just tried to improvise using the major scale pattern across the neck (which was my original idea), it would have no doubt made those extra notes seem out of place.

the only time i now think in terms of "scales" is if im trying to put some fast (by my standards) legato or alternate picking in, then i will choose the appropriate note to start and end on and just climb through the scale or mix the scale up with different picking patterns.

I have no idea if this is the best way to do it - however, it is, as you point out, beginning to become my style.

For a different approach, record yourself playing an Am chord over and over. Play it back and play an A note on your guitar, but really listen to how it sounds over the chord. Then do the same with a B note, and listen for the difference between that and the sound of the A note you just played. Repeat with other notes, and repeat over an A major chord too. You'll begin to find notes and groups of notes you particularly like over certain chords.

In effect, with this kind of experiment you're really adding extensions to the chord - eg when you play a B mote over an Am chord, you're making an Am9 chord (with no 7). It can help to think of the solo as adding to the harmony of the piece as well as thinking of it as a line of solo music. If you listen to many great improvisers, you'll find that their strongest solos could be played without the accompaniment and still sound the chord progression of the piece because of their use of 3rds, 7ths, 9ths, and so on from the chords they're playing over.

When Joe Pass said he thinks of all chords as being either major, minor, or dominant in function, I think this was part of what he was getting at.

There is a danger with sticking to the "minor" pentatonic scale in that if you're uising a I-vi-IV-V7 sequence then you need to use the Major Pentatonic. There are other occasions when it'll work better for you.

If it doesn't sound "right", move it down towards the headstock three frets and have another go.

A :-)