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Hey everybody, I've got a question for you today that I haven't been able to figure out for about a year now. Here's the deal: About two years ago I got real serious about playing guitar (I've been playing for about 12 years) and I learned all of the major scale in all positions on the neck ie. all of the modes. Now, my problem is that I play lead for a worship band at a church, so I can't ever try anything new in the band setting for fear of screwing up in the middle of worship service. So here's the question, how do you follow the chord changes in a song while exclusively playing single string melodies instead of just noodling around with the major scale and a lot of pentatonics (I'm in the rut).

Let me rephrase this.
Do you use a different mode for each chord in the progression. If so why? Each mode along the fretboard in a certain key will contain the same notes right, so in esence your just moving around the fretboard for a higher/ lower toned note of the same 7 notes all over the board in the one key.

Or do you try to play say, the dorian mode in G position over a G,C,D progression? Because this often leads to hitting bad notes that aren't in the certain key of the song.

I'm so confused.

I can noodle with pentatonics and the whole major scale and sound descent but nothing changes, it's all the same 7 notes. How do you accent each chord?

I can't really answer the question you have asked... but being in a somewhat similar position as you, I have to wonder: don't you guys practice? THAT is where I would develop a solo - at least the basic frame for a solo, so I would feel more comfortable about it during the worship service. I would never go into the service cold and expect to come out with a decent solo - some can, but not me.

buelracer-
In non-blues material I also use scales and modes, but mainly to cover the fretboard...not to try to cover the progressions-

This is the opposite of how I was taught in school, but everything I played (when I covered the chord) sounded jazzy or downright modal- It took a great blues guitarist to turn my thinking around...now I think solos more like I think production..ie what does this space need?

After school I sat down with the hottest player in town and said, quot;teach me what you knowquot; and he would play a riff and then another and then another and I was confused...so I asked him how he knew which riff to use overwhich progression and he responded by asking me if I have any ears

So to sum it up, I use scales and modes to cover the entire neck, and once I dig into a solo, I am listening to where the solo needs to go. This is on auto pilot and I actually dont know a lot of riffs, and this keeps me from getting into infinate repeat mode.

But if all is going right, I will be movign up and down the fretboard depending upon the sound that I need to achive what that part of the solo needs..

try this..play E mixolydian quot;underquot; mode, ie position that covers the 9-12 range and overlaps the basic penetonic that everyone learns at age 13.

Now drop to the 5th fret and play the A Major 'over' position (ie 5th fret, 9th fret, 7th fret playing down off of the e)

Could you compare and contrast 2 more differnt uses of the same notes? In the mixolidian mode, everything's compact and easily bent and it's about as bluesy a position as you can get. Everything naturaly points to the e, so the lowered 7th really stands out.

While the A fingering really only works for country bends, or jazz or metal without bending, and is much stronger around A, thus, completely different positions that feel and sound completely diferently.

So that's how I move around the fingerboard...
the beginning of the lead might be bluesy in the mixl position, but I might drop to the A for a more meoldic feel, from there I might use the D lydian or E mixl off of the 5th string to shift back up to the 12th fret. My ear is driving the 'production' the scales or modes are the quot;proceeduresquot; that keep me from hitting wrong notes, and borrowing from that teacher I mentioned, in the comfort of these positions, it's easy to drop in a blue note or two..as Hendrix said, there is no such thing as a bad note as long as you resolve it one fret up or down

Hope to hear more about what you are up to!

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

We do practice but its just once a week and its just a quick run through of the songs, enough to get the rhythm and then we are out of there.
Most of the kids and a few of the older people say that I'm just flat out killer on guitar, but I just don't think so.I mean I know all the modes and everything and I fly all over the fret board while soloing and improv is my strength.
I guess I just get board hearing myself play all of the time, I always like to hear other people play more than myseylf (if they can play). I guess I just like to hear how other people interpret things differently than I do.

Maybe I will practice some chromaticism and hitting the wrong note on purpose, just to resolve them. I think thats what I need is some tension in my soloing. I play so smoothly and even my tone is ultra smooth. (Gibson les paul with sd seth's through a gibson goldtone pushed lightly into overdrive). I think thats what I need.

Thanks guys!

sorry for being so long winded.

Say for instance you are playing over G-C-D progrssion. If you want to play modes; you might play the G major (Ionian) scale over the G, the C lydyan over the C (I know these are the same notes as the G Ionian only starting on C, but what you do is find the the note that does'nt match up with the C Ionian.In this case it's the f up 1/2 to f# make sure you get that note in there). Now do the same with the D Mixylodian. Again same notes but make sure you get the c in there instead of the c#.

Hopefully that helps. let me know

Man... This is all so over my head that I don't know what to say, but that won't stop me. I think that Zion has it right. If you're as accomplished as you are in knowing where all of the notes are on the fretboard, stop thinking and start listening. quot;Playing with your earsquot;, I call it. Stop thinking about where you need to go and start moving to the place that sounds right.

It's such an odd concept and I never know how to express it in words, but I hope that you know or can learn what I mean. Instead of thinking about the next place to go, try just moving to the next place that feels right. Yeah, you'll hit some sour notes at first, but you'll figure it out pretty quickly.

I'm fairly sure that this post made no sense to anyone other than me...lol

HamerPlyr-
Yep the ear is key- Otherwise it turns into endless scales and riffs- We've all heard guitarists that have skill, but don't support the song and all you can think of is quot;STOP PLAYINGquot;-

Scales and modes are crucial tools, but the ear has to direct.

john5959-
Yep, that's good old chord coverage and the way to cover most Jazz and some other forms- As you point out, it is very inportant to understand where you are in the progression, but as I said, if I try to cover every chord it turns into an intellectual exercise.

buellracer
Also have been thinking about how you approacah praise and worhsip and wonder if any of this would help?

1. Maybe it would help to tHink of yourself as an ornimental guitarist instead of lead? ..ie I bet on bar 4 you guys often need fill material, but most of the rest of the time you need tight rhythem, or rhytmic riffs to fill up the space-

Check our Clapton on the Cream Albert Hall DVD- On songs like white room, he recognised that he didn't have room to handle the overdubed leads that run through the song, so he just played rhytrem until a break at the end..but on crossroads or sunshine of your love, he was constanatly combining riffs, chords and melodic snippets that filled a tremednous amount of space for one guitar.

2. If # 1 makes sense, could you do call and answer type breaks where you echo the worship leader? You could pick the appropriate parts keyed off of his lead?

3. I do a lot of 'vocal support' melodic stuff- Not as much free form, pull of and bends kind of breaks, but acting more like another vocal part, or a brass pad part- The cool thing about this, is it is often very scaler, it builds the band up, but it isn't distracting as a pure solo break can be-

Any of this help?

yeah i was thinking along those lines too zion. mabye some chord fragments kind of like country fills. check out some old eagles stuff tequila sunrise take it easy. there are lots of fills/acompaniment in the eages stuff

bingo-
eagles..exactly