I've been looking at several blues songs lately and when I play them, I notice that the relative major pentatonic scale always sounds better than the majroy scale, even though the sheetmusic says the key is major; ie, I'm playing the scale rooted off the D note instead of the B note. An example is the Aerosmith cover of "Stop Messin Around." It says its in the key of B major, and its a simple 12 bar powerchord blues boogie. Since power chords don't have a 3rd, just a root and 5th, does that mean they are automatically minor? Why does the relative major sound better?
Thanks :)
Matt
"Contrary to popular belief, Clapton is NOT God. The prospect that he is God probably had a large hand in driving him to drugs and booze. Thanks everyone."
-Guitar World :lol:
Power chords, since they lack a third, sound either major or minor depending on the melody played over them. As to what scales sound best, it depends on how you handle them - what notes you're hitting right at the chord changes, how you structure a melody, etc. A skillful soloist can make just about any series of notes sound like it fits.
The traditional blues scale is 1-b3-4-b5-5-b7, so a good part of the 'bluesy' sound comes from that b3 - the same as a minor scale. For a tune in B, the blues scale would be:
B-D-E-F-F#-A-B
Your pentatonics would be:
B major: B-C#-D#-F#-G#-B
B minor: B-D-E-F#-A-B
D major: D-E-F#-A-B-D
So... the notes of the D major and B minor pentatonic scales are identical - whether the scale comes out as D major or B minor depends on how it's used. Also note that the B blues is the same as the B minor pentatonic with the addition of the F note (which is virtually always used as a passing tone), so the B minor pentatonic is the more logical blues choice than the B major pentatonic.
My guess is that you're thinking D major pentatonic, because that's where you know the fingering of the major pentatonic notes, but your ear is directing your choice of notes to center around the B... so you're really playing the B minor pentatonic in a different position.
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I think I would typically gravitate to the Bm pentatonic to improvise in that instance too -- with passing notes. B dorian too, maybe? I'll wager you'll find the parallel minor used more often than the relative minor. But I could be very, very wrong. :)
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yeah that makes sense, thanks for the clarification :)
Matt
"Contrary to popular belief, Clapton is NOT God. The prospect that he is God probably had a large hand in driving him to drugs and booze. Thanks everyone."
-Guitar World :lol:
