Scales for I, IV, V chords.

Basic, and I think the solid bedrock to understand all the more complicated progressions. As in the movie "Laura" the detective takes Laura in for questioning at the police station and afterwords says, "I just needed official surroundings." Well I need expert official knowledge and experience to truly confirm what needs to be played. Let me make the I chord A, the IV chord D and the V chord E. The I chord is easy in pop, rockabilly and blues using a A major, pentatonic or blues scale but then the IV chord arrives and uhh..., does one play a corresponding D major, pentatonic or blues scale in any of the five positions and also do the same with the V position E? Sorry it seems such a dumb question but I do think the answer will help a lot of just starting out players. Thanks.

I recommend to stay in a key (A major in this case). All the chord of the key are creating a harmony, and the scale of the key can be played with all the chords of the key. One thing to consider is to use more of the consonant pitches (a notes of a current chord), and less the dissonant pitches (notes in key, that are not chord tones). At lest begin and end phrases with consonant pitches.



Varying between major and (parellel) minor is sometimes used in blues.

Originally Posted by: roustaboutLet me make the I chord A, the IV chord D and the V chord E. The I chord is easy in pop, rockabilly and blues using a A major, pentatonic or blues scale but then the IV chord arrives and uhh..., does one play a corresponding D major, pentatonic or blues scale in any of the five positions and also do the same with the V position E?

Start by learning to stay in key. Use these 2 principles.

1. Use the notes from the scale that forms the key of the chord progression. In this case the A major scale.

2. Target chord tones. This means to melodically & rhythmically emphasize the notes of each chord as it happens. Fortunately all 3 chords have notes that are all in the A major scale.

Have a look at these tutorials on the basics of improvisation & learning to play in key over chord changes.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=876
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=483
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=491

So you can move all over the neck, but still stay in one key & target chord tones of the chords as they change. Make sense? :)

There are also ways of playing using blues scales, pentatonic boxes but following chord changes & targeting chord tones. Here are a few tutorials aimed at that approach.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=232
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=244

There are more advanced approaches to improvising that involve changing scales as the chords change. That happens in some blues & jazz. But as a beginner it will help to get a firm grasp on staying in key before you try more complex approaches.

I show a simple way to start thinking about that approach in these tutorials.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=826
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1614

So ultimately, you can stay completely in key or you can change (modulate) with the chord changes as they happen.

Hope this helps. Please ask more if necessary. Best of success!

so when jarkko Exland says to use parallel major and minor,meaning staying in say C and using the major of it and aswell as the minor or am I wrong?

Originally Posted by: harlandcox... use parallel major and minor,meaning staying in say C and using the major of it and aswell as the minor ...

Yes, exactly.

Parallel keys means to use the major & minor scales rooted on the same note. C major & C minor, for example.

As opposed to the idea of relative keys: C major & A minor, for example.

Some the tutorials that I linked do that. They use pentatonic minor scale as the basic framework to play & visualize, but then add notes from pentatonic & diatonic major to target chord tones.

so use minor even if it is still in the major?

Focus on the 3/5/7 of each chord and of course the root.

Also I think learning to stay in the key will help with soloing. That way when you want to do a solo part in a song, your fingers will know where to go to stay in key. Unless of course you go to the major scale of the IV chord on purpose because you wrote the song that way 😊

Originally Posted by: seattle2Also I think learning to stay in the key will help with soloing. That way when you want to do a solo part in a song, your fingers will know where to go to stay in key. Unless of course you go to the major scale of the IV chord on purpose because you wrote the song that way 😊

The 1 IV V are MAJ
II III VI are minor
VIII 7) is diminished

I guess what I was trying to say was that if the song is in Amaj, for example, and the the chord being used is Dmaj, you could play along with a Dmaj scale if you intentionally wrote a song that way :)