Hey there, last night i thought "why don't i improvise in A major pentatonic for a little?" and i just loved what it sounded like, some kind of blues-rock(no matter what i did it still sounded like blues-rock lol). basically, can you reccomend me some other scales that just, to put it bluntly, sound great for improvisation?(mainly for metal and heavy rock)

Major pentatonic is a good scale to jam to as well...usually if Im improvising over metal, I use chords in the minor, major, and also diminished scaling.

How about phucking the diatonic aproach and making use of all 12 notes? Think of intervals, and the way they sound, the think about the chords. Use scales for solos and stuff. All 12 notes of the octave are equally important (or in other words, the best shit is the one played on the whole bloody neck ).

@necuratu: lol i'm a bit new with intervals, but thanks.. anyway improvising on all 12 notes with a band i think has as many chances of succes like lighting a match on the moon and expecting people on earth to see it... i do try it though sometimes, but imagine with another guitar, a bass, and maybe a keyboard.. what a pain in the ass would that be!

Hey man, the drum and bass really only have to keep it steady. It usually falls down to the guitars to do the fun stuff...think of well, the simplest example...Metallica. Show me one Metallica song that isn't spread all over the neck, hahaha. Use your ear, play it to others, hear to what they have to say, keep working on it, and sorry if this is ambiguous, I'm kind of drunk lol.

minor scales are awesome or maybe the harmonic minor - theyre both pretty sick

You should think of improv in terms of a single scale. Go to google and look up parallel scales and chord substitutions. Thatll give you and idea of how you can switch between scales within a solo and not making it sound choppy and out of place. And always know whats going on with the comping instrument, compliment the tonalities of the overall arrangement. Remember that you can also add notes to scales for a more interesting sound, blue notes are a good place to start, and again, compliment the comping chord tones.
Learning good improv is a life long progress though so dont expect to play good and interesting even after many years of learning this stuff as the amount of material is a lot, and hearing and understanding the companiment can be tricky. You might wanna look up some sheet music on some jzz standards and play around with those. just my 2 pence though.

I improvise all the time, however I don't use certain scales but all the notes. And even if I choose a scale in which to improvise I still throw some lowered or raised notes in often. That is because I like such sounds best. Can't really suggest anything certain, I think its a matter of taste.

Well let me see YES I love the b Harmonic minor :$ sounds so gloomy yet easter type jeje I like flat harmonic keys !

Written by Icewings on 03.11.2007 at 05:31

Well let me see YES I love the b Harmonic minor :$ sounds so gloomy yet easter type jeje I like flat harmonic keys !

Haha, I use that scale a lot too. It sounds very "deep sky object" like to me, but i guess you can name that gloomy.

Oh I know dear, I love it and for singing YUMIII , I love singing flats I don't know why I have this something with UHMM ?Gloomy , and of course Harmonic Minor my fav! did you know that in the baroque times not many people use Harmonic because it was believe to be the devil's scale jeje funny ah !

Written by NECURATU on 03.11.2007 at 19:02

Written by Icewings on 03.11.2007 at 05:31

Well let me see YES I love the b Harmonic minor :$ sounds so gloomy yet easter type jeje I like flat harmonic keys !

Haha, I use that scale a lot too. It sounds very "deep sky object" like to me, but i guess you can name that gloomy.

Major penatonic

The pentatonics are good they sound like rock blues and its funny but personally i prefer the harmonic minor it sounds very good

Actually harmonic minor is my favorite also. Great for creating melancholic sounding stuff too.