May Music Blog
Dean Cutinelli here from the Colorado School of Music. Remember we are just a call away to start your private music lessons. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, Violin lessons, vocal lessons as well orchestral instruments. Now on to our discussion about jamming over two major chords.
Today I’m going to be discussing all the possibilities for jamming over two major chords. For this example we will use G major and C Major. At first glance you should be thinking that these two chords are from the key of G major. The progression is a I IV in the key of G. With that said for improvising over these two chords your first thought should be I can play G major scale and the relative minor scale which is E minor. Second I would jam the G major pentatonic scale and E minor pentatonic scale one this I IV progression in G major. Next try playing a G minor pentatonic scale. This will give you that classic rock sound. At first it may sound a little harsh but with some good phrasing this sound is a lot of fun to jam with. I like to do a little call and answer with the G major pentatonic and G minor pentatonic scales. The next sounds you can try are modes. If you try playing G Lydian over these chords it will give you a dissonant sound. This sound works better if you where to extend the two chords out to Major 7th chords. If you want to try G Dorian this sound works well in combination with the G minor pentatonic scale. These two sounds compliment each other. Last try G mixolydian scale. This sound will work well and is a good way for me to transition into the second way you could analyze our progression. We could look at C as the one chord and G as the five chord in the key of C major. Playing G mixolydian is the same or equal to playing a C major scale over these two chords. Now we can use C as the key and we will have another batch of sounds to try over these two chords. Of course C major scale will work along with A minor and both the C major and A minor pentatonic scales. Now you can also try C minor pentatonic scale and again this sound is a little harsh at first but gives you that edgy rock sound. Last you could try C dorian that will complement the C minor pentatonic scale. Each sound has it’s own feel and texture.
When trying these different sounds over these two chords I recommend cleaning you audio palette. What I mean by this is after trying a sound play some random chords and scales. This will reset your ear and how you will hear the next sounds you try. You will find some of these different sounds compliment each other and some do the opposite and clash. The best way to get a feel for these different sounds is to practice them over your progression. If your jamming over a I IV progression and its from a song with singing or a melody this may influence what sounds work best over your progression. Remember if you taking a solo and the song has vocals or a melody this will influence what sound or sounds work best.
Feel free to come in to the Colorado School of Music and take a lesson. We offer guitar lessons, piano lessons, drum lessons, violin lessons and vocal lessons as wells as orchestral instruments.
