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<blockquote data-quote="skeller047" data-source="post: 560975" data-attributes="member: 9069">There&#039;s not a lot to add to the already great (and correct!) advice you&#039;ve been given here [USER=9742]@cappers[/USER].&nbsp; But there is an underlying principle that might help you with the next tune you have to work on.You were told by your colleague to use the 3 minor pentatonic scales (or blues scales) corresponding to the 3 chords used in this tune.&nbsp; This is a very common approach these days, but I believe it&#039;s fundamentally misleading.&nbsp;&nbsp; Turf, Pete, JSL, Piccolo Pirate all said use the A blues scale throughout.&nbsp; That comes from many years experience playing the blues.&nbsp; But you want to &quot;play the changes&quot;.&nbsp; The key to playing changes is to understand what key you are in and use the ruling scale for that key all the time.&nbsp; If a chord comes up that has a note that isn&#039;t in that scale, change the scale to accommodate that note - for this example, the song is in A minor.&nbsp; Use the A blues scale, or A Dorian, as the home scale, then when&nbsp; you reach Dmin, change the F# to F-natural.&nbsp; Make no other changes.&nbsp; Similarly, when you get to the E7, change the G to G#.&nbsp; Using a simple rule like &quot;play the minor pentatonic scale when you see a minor 7th chord&quot; does kinda work, but it also puts you in a kind of rut.&nbsp; Changing a base scale to accommodate a chord is not only more flexible, it keeps you focused on the key of the whole song.&nbsp; For a simple song like this,&nbsp; a 12 bar blues, that&#039;s critical.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="skeller047, post: 560975, member: 9069"] There's not a lot to add to the already great (and correct!) advice you've been given here [USER=9742]@cappers[/USER]. But there is an underlying principle that might help you with the next tune you have to work on. You were told by your colleague to use the 3 minor pentatonic scales (or blues scales) corresponding to the 3 chords used in this tune. This is a very common approach these days, but I believe it's fundamentally misleading. Turf, Pete, JSL, Piccolo Pirate all said use the A blues scale throughout. That comes from many years experience playing the blues. But you want to "play the changes". The key to playing changes is to understand what key you are in and use the ruling scale for that key all the time. If a chord comes up that has a note that isn't in that scale, change the scale to accommodate that note - for this example, the song is in A minor. Use the A blues scale, or A Dorian, as the home scale, then when you reach Dmin, change the F# to F-natural. Make no other changes. Similarly, when you get to the E7, change the G to G#. Using a simple rule like "play the minor pentatonic scale when you see a minor 7th chord" does kinda work, but it also puts you in a kind of rut. Changing a base scale to accommodate a chord is not only more flexible, it keeps you focused on the key of the whole song. For a simple song like this, a 12 bar blues, that's critical. [/QUOTE]

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