little question..

What would you solo over the basic G-C-D-Em chord progression?

I know I should know this, but I don't. Musta been that year of band I skipped. :/

hmm, just play what sounds best. I think the blue's scale or any minor scale should work over it.

Summary for those too lazy to read the below: G Major/Ionian, G Major Pentatonic, G Major Hexatonic, and G Minor Blues are all usuable (but careful with the Blues scale).

The progression is in G Major; depending on the sound you're trying to achieve, you could play G Major (a.k.a. Ionian for you mode lovers), G Major pentatonic w/ b3 and maybe #5 thrown in for spice (think about bending the A and D notes to hit the b3 and #5), or the G Minor Blues scale for a bluesey minor over major type sound. Experiment. I'd say the most likely and ear friendly approach I'd take if playing over a given song with that progression for me would be G Major Hexatonic. That's basically G Major Pentatonic with the added 9th of F#, so it's every note in G Major except for the 4th (C), which usually just clashes unless you play it over a C or Am chord, anyway.

Oh, a lot of more inexperienced guitarists I know are very comfortable with using the stock Minor Pentatonic chord box to solo, and not much else. If this is the case with you, when soloing over a song in a given major key, you can play diatonically by playing the minor pentatonic box with a root located a minor third below your original root. This is using the minor scale of the relative minor of your song's key. This let you play in a familiar pattern without going out of key. So, in G Major, like you have here, you can play in the E Minor Pentatonic Box.

How'd you get that, Dirt? --- The minor scale located a minor third below a major scale is called the major scale's relative minor. They share the same key signature. A minor third = 3 half steps. G down a minor third is G ---> F# ---> F ---> E, so E is your root for the minor pentatonic box. And to double check me, remember that E Minor is G Major's relative minor. They both contain G, A, B, C, D, E, and F#.

Hope that this helps!

I've never really played around with anything pentatonic, but at least that all made sense. Well, almost all of it. I haven't worked through the hexatonic thing yet.

WOW! Dirt, you made me realize just how musically illiterate I am. I know how to read music and all that, but when it comes to theory or anything other than making something up that sounds good to my ears, I haven't got a clue. I've got to get lessons from somewhere!

It's great that you can read music! I can understand sheet music, but I can't sit down and play a piece at tempo unless it's a simple single line melody like Twinkle, Twinkle or such. I get lost on even easy preludes and such - I have to dissect it note by note. On the other hand, I can take a chord chart and make it sound like a full arrangement on piano or guitar. Chord charts are my forte.

THEORY is what helps. I can play by ear blindly, BUT, if I know I'm in G Major, I know what notes I can use, what chords to generally expect, and how to extend these chords without guesswork - it just takes musical taste in the application. My advice: get a teacher and work on theory! It's single-handedly the most important thing you could learn - better than any lick or arpeggio, because most licks and arpeggios are derived from a theortical formula.

Or Em..