I just started playing guitar about 11 months ago and I am starting to learn my scales, but I am confused. How are scales used in solos? What are scales for? Please help.

Whoa...


Your not gonna get a whole lot of feedback on this becuase it is a very deep topic. In a nutshell the chords in a progression are actually contained in certain scales like... playing a progression C - Dm - Em - F, that would be in C Major, so if you solo in C Major/A Minor it would harmonize. Browse through this forum, there's several threads that will show you how to match progression to scales, what degress are major/minor/etc, how to use extended chords and such. Also just goto some good music theory sites, they prob have more organized information about scales and soloing. Good Luck!

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Scales are used to attain certain melodies, or at least that's the way I use them. Same reason I use chords. Scales and chords are indifferent really. Scales just have lots more notes generally.

I like finding as many as I can and learning them. I was kind of misled when I got into guitar, I thought there were really high technical and theory standards and I picked up the Phrygian Dominant scale within a couple of months of getting my first guitar out of a magasine which had a tab for a Slayer solo and said it was in D Phryg' Dom'. Next I learnt Natural Minor and then Harmonic Minor.
Then it was Davie Gravy's signature that showed me how Phryg' Dom' was within Harm' Min' and thus I learnt modes.

I found a bit of paper the other day which I wrote the formula for the Nonatonic scale ages ago. Nine tones!



Fucking bizzare...
I sat working out its eight modes until I realised I fucked up the sixth
and scrapped it.



Oh, and Davie, Phryg' Dom' has the Dominant chord in it. That's it feel, and it is a melodic and bold scale. Makes me think I've excavated something grand in Egypt.

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I love the phrygian dominant! For minor applications, I always find myself throwing the harmonic minor and it's modes in one way or another. I love that major 7th leading tone. BTW...



How did my signature show you this?

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Didn't you have that 'Key Of C' thing your sig' once? You said you did when I asked about it in a thread...

Oh, if you like Harmonic Minor, try Lydian Diminished for modes!



The third is this odd moody Locrian.



The Lydian Dim' has a similar feel to the Harm' Min' but sounds even more uplifted.

A cool scale for that sort of feel but more slow, more blues-like Eastern fee is Symmetrical Hexatonic, a scale composed of two Augmented chords with the roots a minor 2nd apart.
I'll start a thread on it.

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