rationalskepticism.org

electricwhiteboy wrote:

BWE wrote:Thanks. I just realized that I didn't say the point of linking that. Although ego is good as a point I suppose. My original point though was that that whole tweedly bit in there is all just a blues box (pentatonic scale). There is some attention to what someone earlier called resolving on the dominant chord but in general, if you can understand how the pentatonic relates to a song, you can almost always play along using it.

The whole bit about chords being built off the 1st 3rd and 5th note of a scale is actually the foundation for all of music theory and it's super important but the pentatonic scales kind of let you bypass the thinking real hard part of that.

N.b Post aimed at Ani than rather than yourself

Soloing by ear in the pentatonic whilst the rhythm is chugging along in power chords is about 90% of all classic rock lead, the other 10% is what you add to it. Once you've got the basics it's not long before you can solo by ear. What you do next is up to you. There are the guys who know exactly where they are in the progression, and are chosing specific notes. Other players go completely go by ear, most folk will be a bit of both. Playing an improvised solo is kinda like playing snooker. It's all about positional play, I'm listening to what I'm playing but thinking a couple of shots ahead. "Ok, there's a D Minor 7th coming up, so if I can nudge the melody to this part of the neck I can play this lick over it."

I'm no theory buff but I would advocate anyone knowing the basics if they want to write their own music. If you only ever want to do covers it demystifies things a lot, e.g knowing about the mixolydian mode explains the notes Jimmy Page and Slash add to the pentatonic in solos, but it's not essentital.