Blues In G

Happy Birthday :P

Happy B-day dog

I won't be taking a part but happy birthday.

Just a small question, when you guys say were doing a blues jam in G. It's obvious youre in the key of G. But what does that mean. Somehting about you can only use those notes in that key to solo in? Im just starting to learn this stuff and its confusing.

Just a small question, when you guys say were doing a blues jam in G. It's obvious youre in the key of G. But what does that mean. Somehting about you can only use those notes in that key to solo in? Im just starting to learn this stuff and its confusing.

One easy-to-remember tidbit I've learned recently is that the 6th note of a major scale is the "natural minor." So in G, the natural minor is E. I think this means that you can then use the Em scale as well as the Gmajor scale to build a solo (I'm sure there are other ways as well.) Conveniently, the natural minor has the same exact notes as the major scale! In this case, I would probably try to use the Em Pentatonic, or even better the Em Blues scale, to come up with some riffs over the backing track in G. I only know one position of each of these so my effort may be limited, but it's a starting point. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this!)

Smokingdog: okay, at your encouragement in
my recent beginner's blues post, I will download your track and give it a go. I figure you can't learn to swim unless you get into the water. Tentatively pencil me in for one of the segments, but I make no promises yet! :wink:

Ok slejhamer I will pencil you in for 1:19-2:20. Don't obses over geting it perfect, it is just rock-n-roll after all :D I know after you get going you will wonder what all the fuss was about :lol: we look forward to hearing it 8) --the dog

I won't be taking a part but happy birthday.

Just a small question, when you guys say were doing a blues jam in G. It's obvious youre in the key of G. But what does that mean. Somehting about you can only use those notes in that key to solo in? Im just starting to learn this stuff and its confusing.

No. It doesn't mean those are the only notes you can play...certainly not. However, it provides you with a guide to pick notes that might sound good. If you know you are playing the blues in G you know that any note in the G minor pentatonic should probably sound good.

However, one common thing to play in blues is a b5, or Db in G, and this is certainly not in key. Also, blues often mixes major and minor modes...the backing might be a major I-IV-V7 progression (GM, CM, DM7) but you play in minor, which is also not in key. Sometimes the backing will play a 7th chord for the tonic (I) which is also not "in key" (not when the V is also a 7th anyway).

Other things you can deduce by someone saying that this is "blues in G" is that the music follows a standard 12 bar pattern: play the tonic chord for 4 measures, the 4th for 2, the tonic for 2, the 5th for one, followed 4th for 1, followed by the tonic again for 2. There are many variations to this theme, such as "fast" blues, but they are minor changes...the 12 bar pattern is very predictable.

But you can play ANYTHING on top. You could play the chromatic scale and just place emphasis on certain notes like the root, minor 3, minor 7th, etc...you could go jazzy and play a whole note scale...or a diminished scale...you can play minor or major modes or both...you can do whatever you want and whatever you think sounds good.

Theory is just a guide. Think about how theory was created: "Hey, that sounds good...I wonder why..." then later .... "Hey, that sounds good but doesn't fit my theory...I wonder why...." ... and this process continues to this day, hundreds of years from the beginning.

The ear came first.

One easy-to-remember tidbit I've learned recently is that the 6th note of a major scale is the "natural minor." So in G, the natural minor is E. I think this means that you can then use the Em scale as well as the Gmajor scale to build a solo (I'm sure there are other ways as well.) Conveniently, the natural minor has the same exact notes as the major scale! In this case, I would probably try to use the Em Pentatonic, or even better the Em Blues scale, to come up with some riffs over the backing track in G. I only know one position of each of these so my effort may be limited, but it's a starting point. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong about this!)

You are technically correct and you would be playing what is known as "major blues". However, blues is often a little backwards wrt music theory (though theory has developed as to why this works). You often solo in minor mode over a major progression. So also try using Gm pentatonic. Also, even in "major blues" you usually flat the 7th and play in mixolydian mode instead of ionian, or major. If you play the Em pentatonic then you never play the 7th in reference to G so this doesn't come up but if you play Em scale then it does.

However, playing in GM should 'work' even if it won't necissarily sound very 'bluesy'.

THANK YOU nroberts! That is very informative. I haven't yet gotten into blues scales in my lessons, so I was applying what I had learned about the major scale which, as you said, is technically correct, but not necessarily what I'd want to be playing in blues.

8)

Believe it or not, I believe I'm done with my part! How do I get it to you, SD? Can I just email you the Audacity files?

http://www.guitars101.com/vb/showthread.php?t=30219

you will need to convert it to a mp3 file. send me a 128 kbs file of just your solo with a few seconds of the beginning of the track. the silence between the beginning of the track and your solo needs to be left in also. Read the above tutorial by nroberts, it should help :D also send a lo-fi mp3 of the BT with your part ( maybe at 48kbs) so i can tell where you come in just in case things don't line up right so i can fix it. Thanks for jaming with us--the dog

Oh yea, send it to [email protected]

I'm interested in trying this out. But I am having troubles getting a recording. If I can fix that problem, then I'll let you know. Sounds like a blast and blues in G is one of the things I have been practicing on.

Geoo

thank you nroberts and slejhamer for your help.

slejhamer, according to what you said, for example if something is in the key of A, I'm allowed to use notes from the F minor scale and the A major scale? To do this, will I have to jsut look up those scales, and use those notes?

Also, if you see cream- crossroads, throughtout the song, he solos on different fret areas such as first around 3-7, then he moves to 10-15, and for the final solo, it's all fret 17 and up. How does he know which notes to use that still sound like part of the song? despite the distance between fret 5 and 19. They surely can't be part of the same scale, as they are so far apart.

Thanks alot for your help

Way too late, but happy birthday dude, would be honored to join this celebration jam. Hope you had an excellent day! 8)

thank you nroberts and slejhamer for your help.

slejhamer, according to what you said, for example if something is in the key of A, I'm allowed to use notes from the F minor scale and the A major scale? To do this, will I have to jsut look up those scales, and use those notes?

If you mean F# minor then what he is saying is that they are the same scale...basically. They have the same notes in them but start and end on different notes.

A Major: A B C# D E F# G# A
F# Major: F# G# A# B C# D# E# F#
F# Minor (b3, b6, b7): F# G# A B C# D E F# <- same notes as A Major.

F minor would not probably sound very good as it would be very different than the A major and would clash a great deal:

F Major: F G A Bb C D E F
F Minor: F G Ab Bb C Db Eb F

Lots of different notes.
Also, if you see cream- crossroads, throughtout the song, he solos on different fret areas such as first around 3-7, then he moves to 10-15, and for the final solo, it's all fret 17 and up. How does he know which notes to use that still sound like part of the song? despite the distance between fret 5 and 19. They surely can't be part of the same scale, as they are so far apart.

Why not? What is the difference? The difference is 14 semitones. This is a 9th interval from the note on the 5th fret. Depending on where the 5th fret note is in the scale it could be perfectly in key. For instance, if the 5th fret is the root of the scale then the 19th fret is the 9th degree of the scale. If the 5th fret is say the 4th degree then the 19th is the 5th of the scale I believe (4th is 5 semitones so makes root on 0, 19 - 12 = 7semitones = 5th degree)...very much in key and a good note to emphasize. What if the 5th fret is the minor 3rd? b3 = 3 semitones. 5-3 = 2. 19 - 2 = 17. 17 - 12 = 5 = 4th degree....still ok. But if it was a major 3 then it would result in a #4...which is "ok" in Lydian but not much else (except blues of course).

Edit: Another way to look at it is to see that 19 - 5 = 14. 14 - 12 = 2. So any degree that is 1 whole step up from the degree before it will make this ok. In other words, the major scale goes WWHWWWH, so any time there is a W between two notes it will work.

Of course that assumes that they are on the same string. Have a look at this site to help you maybe: http://www.thecipher.com

On the other hand, what if he played the same pattern on the 5th and 19th fret? I don't know how well that would work out. It would probably depend on the mode he is playing, the backing, etc...more info than we have at the moment in this hypothetical situation. He would be changing modes, the question is would it sound good.