Originally Posted by: svenskekocken_2
...knowing what scale i could/should use for example Rock songs, or for country, or blues and so on....
The type of scale you use is not dependant upon the genre of music (rock, blues, country, etc.) you are playing. It depends on the harmonic content of the song.
The best way to generalize about this topic is to say that the scales you play over a tune should be consistent with the chords used in the tune.
The easiest way of doing this is to break down the chords. What are all of the notes in all of the chords that are played in a given tune? Can you line them all up in a scale? Do they form part of a scale?
Specific example: say a song contains the chords: C major, D minor & G major. List out all the notes in those chords:
C major - C, E, G
D minor - D, F, A
G major - G, B, D
List them all in a row alphabetically:
A, B, C, D, E, F, G
Now you can build a scale! All those notes can form a C major scale or an A minor scale (or any mode of those you are comfortable with). Also, it helps because you know which notes will sound good stressed on each chord when it is happening. For example you know that the notes C, E & G will sound very consonant with the C chord when it is happening in the tune. If you want to sound "jazzy" for example then you would
avoid using those notes on strong beats while the C chord is happening.
This idea works for sections of a larger song also in which there are modulations and key changes.
Christopher Schlegel
Guitar Tricks Instructor
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