Major Key Progressions
So far most of your improvising has been based on Blues Progressions. This involved using the Blues scale, which contains the notes I, bIII, IV, V, bVII, relative to the major scale.
When a progression is in a major key, but does not have a "Blues sound" (e.g., most melodic "pop" songs) a different scale is used for improvising. This scale is called a major pentatonic* scale and contains the notes I, II, III, V, VI, relative to the major scale.
An example of a major key progression is the turnaround:
Turnaround in A
Finish the progression with a single strum on the 1st chord (A major).
For improvising against this progression, the A major pentatonic scale is used. It contains the notes:
These notes can be arranged into the following pattern.
Pattern 1 - Major Key Progressions
You will notice that this pattern is identical in shape to pattern one for Blues progressions, but it contains different notes and is played three frets lower.
*Pentatonic meaning 5 tones
Here is a lick which uses this pattern against the A major key progression shown at the beginning of the lesson. Notice the use of quick slides.
Here is a comparison of the two scales which use pattern one:
This major pentatonic pattern can be used to improvise against any major key progression in the key of A. Once you are familiar with the new application of pattern one, use its extension as introduced in lesson nine. The following table sets out the relationship between the location of pattern one for Blues and Major key progressions.
You may notice from this table that for major key progressions pattern one is following the root 6 relative minor bar chord. (for more information on relative minor keys, see Appendix 1).
