Originally Posted by: light487Hey thanks for the replies.. when I first came up with the solo my first thought was B Phrygian or Lydian but I was only really guessing.. I don't understand though how it can be G Major key though. The chord progression of the September Solo Assignment is:
INTRO: Em - C -D
VERSES: Em-Am-D-G-C-F-B7
ENDING: Em-C-D

but I understand the scale bit now..

G Major Scale
G A B C D E F#

Which are the notes I am playing.. and I am starting from the 3rd, so yes.. that is a B Phrygian. Makes perfect sense now that it's been brought to my attention... haha.. I feel stupid.. But why does the G Major Scale work when the chord progression doesn't have the G Major chord as a dominant chord?

If the G Major chord is the Dominant, you would be working best with the C Major scale because G is the dominant to C Major.
The reason that B Phrygian worked out is because it contains the same notes as all of the chord's root notes, Except One...... The "F" note.
B Phrygian has the F# note. This comparison only relates with the Root notes of the progression. While on that subject, notice that all Root notes are Natural notes (no Sharps or flats). This was exposed by the Verse chords when added in the progression. Only one Major scale can be credited with containing all Natural notes and that's the C Major scale;
C-D-E-F-G-A-B.
These notes together make the Key of C.
In order for each of the notes to form it's own chord, only the notes in C Major may be used for a chord to remain in the Key. Some chords will be Major, some minor and one must diminish.
A Capitol letter (K)= Major, a small letter (k)= minor and last is "dim"
C-d-e-F-G-a-Bdim,,,,,,3 Major chords, 3 minor and 1 diminished.
By the note, all match..... E Phrygian, G Mixolydian, etc............
But not all of the chords of the progression fit in the Key of C.
D Major = D-F#-A
and
B7 = B-D#-F#-A

The D# and F# notes are the crashers.
From here I would look to Am, the relative minor of C Major and work with some of ways that the minor blues scale can handle some tension and release from those trusty "Blue" notes.
Nice how that D# fits in the Am Blues scale..........