this is a great song and we are rehaersing it now - however, i am stumped by the theory Andy summers uses on his solo.
IF anybody here already knows this solo and understands the theory could you give me a clue??
the chords are C G Am F, but a lot of the time he seems to be using the b minor pentatonic.
i know he likes to use outside notes as he loves his jazz, but i just dont understand why this solo works...
does anybody play it??
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
The key changes to D when the solo kicks in, everything moves up a whole step so the Bm pentatonic would make sense as it's the relative minor of D major.
thanks, i didnt realise there was a key change - it makes perfect sense now. thanks
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
okay - progress is good. the song is gig ready and we are rareing to go. The solo and fills are there are sounding good -EXCEPT i want to alter the solo now slightly (dont ask me why, i always like to change a solo unless it is a "signature" solo everybody recognises).
I would like to play the origional solo from the record up until half way, and then when the tempo kicks up switch from major pentatonic to minor pentatonic and put my own stamp on it, but im struggling to make this work.
if you play half a solo in major pentatonic does this set the ears up to reject a switch to minor? it just sounds horrible when i switch??
does anybody who knows the song have a reason for this or should it technically work??
i do realise that switching to minor would cause a clash, but if i approach this clash the same way i would approach using a blues scale, it surely should work??
any ideas??
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
Do you mean playing the solo in D minor pentatonic or D's relative minor pentatonic (B minor pentatonic)?
Either way if you are looking for a little bit of a different sound, I suggest the B Aeolian mode. It gets really rocking and it will sound a little bit different because you are adding 2 notes to the D major pentatonic.
Really if you wanted to give this solo your own spice, though, just play the second half of the solo like you would if you invented the song. You don't have to change the scale to add your own flavor, unless that is what you do.
well, for our singers sake we transposed the whole song down to Bb. so when the solo kicks in and we move up a step, we play in c major. the first half of the solo is in c major and i use C major pent, (or A aeolian - all the same to me), but for the second half i want to use c minor or c blues.
i would try to play the solo my way, but the first half of the solo is more recognisable than the rest, and being a covers band we want to keep in the most recognisable parts. however, when i switch to c blues, it all goes pear shaped :oops:
"I like to play that guitar. I have to stare at it while I'm playing it because I'm not very good at playing it."
Noel Gallagher (who took the words right out of my mouth)
That's because a C minor pentatonic blues is such a huge change from a C major pentatonic. You see the C minor blues consists of the pattern: 1,b3,4,b5,5,b7 (C, D#, F, F#, G, A#, respectfully) and the key of C consists of the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. As you can clearly see, those notes are somewhat similiar, but very different. I have always learned that improv or soloing, as long as you start on the note and end on the note, you can do whatever you want. So if you want to rock out in a C blues pentatonic, go ahead. The D#, F# and A# notes will make for a great range of passing notes. Just be careful with it and don't blur out 40000 notes per second; then it will just sound like crap.
