John Petrucci - Guitar Lessons #05.pdf - petrucci - jajcek6

Uncharted Waters

Navigating lines outside the key center

There have been moments, I'm sure, in the course of playing a tune or

jamming over a progression, that you've come across a chord or two that

didn't quite "belong" in the song's key center. It's happens to all of us.

Suddenly, the scale you've been soloing with no longer fits-in fact, it sounds

terrible! What ends up happening is that you either lay out altogether for the

duration of the mystery chord, or you try to muddle your way through it,

hunting and pecking, praying that at least some of the notes will work. Well,

fear no more, for I'm here to give you a few tips that may help you overcome

this intimidating situation.

Let's start at the beginning. Before you attempt to solo over any progression,

you should look it over. Is the progression completely diatonic, or are there

chords out of the key center? Are there any chords that may be unfamiliar to

you? It's important to isolate potential trouble spots and work on them in

advance.

If you're playing over a series of diatonic chord changes, as in FIGURE 1, the

solution is pretty obvious-you can easily use one scale throughout the entire

progression and it'll sound fine. Since FIGURE 1 is in the key of E major, you

can use the E Ionian (major) or E major-pentatonic scale to solo over the

entire groove.

AUDIO FILES FIGURE 1 (80 bpm)

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WAVE Audio File (Windows)

AUDIO FILES FIGURE 2 (80 bpm)

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WAVE Audio File (Windows)

AUDIO FILES FIGURE 3 (80 bpm)

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WAVE Audio File (Windows)

But suppose the progression "borrows" a major chord that's not in the key, like

the C chord in FIGURE 2. Well, that's where you'll have to do some pre-

planning. In this case, there's a tried-and-true rule you can pretty much

follow: whenever there's a single non-diatonic major chord in a progression,

play the Lydian scale built on the root of the chord over it. In other words,

since there's a C chord in the otherwise diatonic progression in the key of E,

you'll have to play the C Lydian scale (FIGURE 3) over that-and only that-

chord.

Be forewarned-simply playing the scale is not enough. Nothing gives away

inexperienced improvisers faster than the sudden break in their solo's

momentum caused by trying to play a scale that "works" or to force a line that

they previously worked out. The key is to smoothly connect your lines so you

sound like you're playing "through" the changes, not "over" them.

Compare FIGURES 4A and 4B.

AUDIO FILES FIGURE 4A (80 bpm)

AIFF Audio File (Macintosh)

WAVE Audio File (Windows)

AUDIO FILES FIGURE 4B (80 bpm)

AIFF Audio File (Macintosh)

WAVE Audio File (Windows)

FIGURE 4A is an example of something an immature soloist might do, that is,

sacrifice the whole flow of the solo by trying to nail the "correct" scale over a

"trouble spot" in the progression. Notice how running the C Lydian scale (and

starting on the root, no less!) has nothing to do with the bluesy feel of the rest

of the solo. Now check out FIGURE 4B.

Even though I used C Lydian over the C chord, the line feels like one

continuous idea. That's because I set up the change by smoothly resolving

from one chord tone to another (from the third of A [C#] to the root of C). It's

amazing what a simple half-step can do when you know how to use it.

To get this concept under your fingers, try this exercise: tape a diatonic

progression that has one non-diatonic major chord (use Figure 2 as a starting

point). Then try to craft your lines so that when you're switching to the chord

that's not in the key center, the largest interval you play is a whole-step or half-

step in either direction. You can also use a tone that's common to both scales

(E, F#, A and B are found in both E Ionian and C Lydian). Using these initial

guidelines will give your ideas greater melodic continuity. Next month, we'll go

further in-depth into non-diatonic soloing.

John Petrucci - Guitar Lessons #05.pdf

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