Blues Soloing Question

[waylay00]

Hey guys, I was experimenting with a twelve bar blues in the key of G (G7-C7-D7), and I noticed that on the V chord (D7), playing a lick in the F-minor pentatonic scale sounds really good. Why is that?

[toneboy]

Hmm...if you're absolutely sure you are playing F minor Pentatonic (F, G#, A#, C, D#) against a D7 (D, F#, A, C) , I'm not sure what sounds good to you. To me, it sounds bad but that's just me. You're playing:
F - 1/2 step off from the 3rd of D7.
G# - the flat 5th of D7
A# - the sharp 5th of D7
C - That fits fine since it's the dominant 7th in your chord.
D# - the flat 2nd of the chord which is a lot of tension.

If you're lick starts and stops on C, I guess I can see how that would work in a way. Please understand that I'm just analyzing the chord and scale and not accounting for taste. I tried playing around with that combo and it didn't sound "right" to me but if it works for you, who cares.

[waylay00]

Yeah, I noticed what you said about the D# adding tension, and that's the sound that I notice. Granted, I am not playing the whole solo in F minor pentatonic; it is rather a short little lick in the Fmin Pentatonic on the 9th bar of a twelve bar blues. For example, something like this -


E|-------------13---------------------------------------|
B|-----------------13---16bendto18---------------------|
G|15bendto17-------------------------------------------|
D|------------------------------------------------------|
A|------------------------------------------------------|
E|------------------------------------------------------|

THis whole use of the Fmin lick over the D7 was something my guitar teacher showed me at the end of my last lesson, but I forgot exactly why he said it "works" (something theoretical that I forgot).

[toneboy]

Actually, the D# in this case is the flat 9th. It would only be the flat 2nd if the chord you were playing against didn't have the 3rd in it. Since you're playing against a D7, the D# works fine. Sorry about the mistake.

The first part of the lick is bending A# to C. You start on the augmented fifth of D7 and resolve it to the dominant 7th of the chord. Good tension and release.

The second part takes you from the dominant 7th of D7 (C) to the flat 9th (D#) to the minor 3rd (F). I still don't know why that sounds good but I just started playing again after an 8 yr hiatus. I played for 15 yrs. before that and was always up on my theory but's a little rusty now. I'll be interested to hear what your teacher says about this.

[waylay00]

Thanks toneboy!

Here's another response I got from another forum -

Here's what I said after posting the same lick as above:
"After this I quickly go back to the C mixolydian or the like, as the chord has changed from D7 (V) to C7 (IV)."

Here's his response:

"The fact that you say you "quickly go back" to another Scale says to me that you are using this riff as a Chromatic Passing Tone to Voice Lead the ear back into the correct Scale. This works. You can relate this to playing your 'D7' Chord, and sliding it down to a 'C#7,' and back up to the 'D7.' You do this very quickly. It sounds very nice, and very blusey. Scales will work the same way. Again it is called "Side Slipping." I am not 100% sure that this is what you are doing. But it does make sense. "

[toneboy]

Ah, yes that makes sense now. I really can't hear it in context right now since I don't have anyone to play the chords for me and I haven't got set up for recording yet.

I've found that someone of my coolest licks were discovered by accident. One finger goes to the wrong string/fret and voila! I've found something new I like.

[nickcoumbe]

I can relate to that toneboy. Especially since my fingers go wrong all the time!