Accidentals

If i wna add an accidental to the major scale for example do i only add one new note? is that note to be used a couple of times? Surely if u added notes without care youd be outa key and just playing the chromatic scale!?

Not sure what you mean . . . An accidental is just a note that isn't in the key signature. So sure, go ahead and add some. It really depends on what kind of music you're playing. If you're playing blues, accidentals won't matter at all, because blues songs don't have definite key signatures. If you're playing jazz, everyone will think you were really cool to add those dissonant notes. Anything else, and you might want to stick to key.

Don't focus on such things, just let the music come up naturaly.

Some accidentals sound really cool when added to scales. Adding a flatted 5th to a minor pentatonic sclae gives you a blues scale. Those are nice, I use them to improvise over almost all the time. Far more nice to liten to than just the same old pentatonic boxes. Thats just one example. There are others out there.

Yeah there notes that arent in the key signature for eg. Accidentals are used in minor melodic scales- like raise the 7th for a spanish guitar feel to the music.

[Edited by irg_lies on 11-18-2002 at 05:08 AM]