Offshore Angler
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2006
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- 922
That's a great question but really hard to answer. Why? Well, modal playing on guitar is really about patterns and shifting them, and some scales don't fall into modes. All modes only use seven notes but there are 12 notes to work with so modes can result in some really boring, repetitive and forgettable music.
It's also not usually how a trained pro approaches the task at hand.
First, do they have charts and are they expecting you to play "to the ink"? If that's the case knowing scales and modes is great and all that, but reading and dexterity is required over theory.
Or on the other hand are they providing you with some framework for a song and wanting you to flesh it out? If it's original that's the money shot because you can sometimes get writing credit and that's were the real money is for a musician.
So for funk - funk has in general no guitar hero solos. Rarely am I playing more than a triad. Funk is about one thing: impeccable timing within highly syncopated beats. Yes, since flat sevens are ubiquitous in funk you may want to think modally as mixolydian (as often heard in TOP for example), or scale-wise maybe the blues scale, but mostly one stays in the chord tones so you really don't need to think in terms of scales. The other thing with funk is that there usually aren't a lot of changes going on (Buddy Miles excluded!) and your job as the guitar player is to propel things forward. Since the funk songs commonly don't feature cadences for resolution it's more about the syncopation and rhythm, again using triads or dyads to propel, but always finding the correct timing to keep forward motion in the groove. Funk grooves are amongst the tightest you ever be asked to play and even the tiniest timing error that wouldn't be noticed in other music will stick out like a sore thumb in funk. In short, funk is no place for undisciplined players who don't practice without a metronome or click.
Look at it this way: Jimmie Hendrix was a pretty innovative soloist (!) but nobody ever remembers a solo he did when he was in James Brown's band.
Disco. Wow, what to say here. For all it's malignment amongst a certain bunch of leather-clad hipsters, it can be some of the most sophisticated and demanding music you'll approach. Common minor to major transitions, use of sub-dominate substitutions to a B section, II,V,I's sneaking in here and there. You gotta be on your toes. And - with all this going on - it's melodic. Earth, Wind and Fire, AWB, Chicago, Bee Gees, Stevie Wonder all just major, major songwriting. But also a bit easier since they 're iconic songs as the guitar player I'm expected to reproduce the hit live. So again, I'm not having to put a lot of thought into choosing notes - Just remembering them
. Where Disco will separate the wheat from the chaff with players is when they ask you to ride it on a stretch.
How do I approach my note selection for improvising? Rarely, if ever, do I start thinking in terms of a scale or mode. That would be akin to someone asking me build an engine and me starting by selecting what single wrench I'm going to use. Not very practical. I'm going to start with displacement, compression ratio, boost, head and valves, wet or dry sump, etc. Once all that's sketched out then I decide what tools to use.
Approaching a solo is much the same. First what key is it in? What chords are used, and what cadences are employed to build tension and resolve? These are the keys to improvising. Then it's the overall rhythmic feel and importantly, the dynamics. I'm going to work in the chord tones first because they're the roadmaps. Larry Carlton is a MASTER of this and I've tried to lean into his playing often. Using the chord tones I next want to build interest so I start looking to inversions. Even simple first inversion can add spice in a melody.
Now, am I only using the chord tones? Of course not. The other notes come into one of two categories (melodically speaking here- we all use ghosts and mutes for syncopation), either I choose it for a melodic tone or passing tone. Think about it, I have the I, III,V, & VII already mapped out in the chord tones. What's missing? The two, the four and the sixth. Easy peasy. With good ear training you hear the note you want and identify the interval as either a half or full tone and play accordingly. If you miss, just make a chromatic move IN TIME WITH THE MUSIC. Nobody will notice except your professor.
Now, if I'm still in the solo and it's starting to sound a bit tired I start looking for substitutions. For example you can almost always substitute a ii for IV to add spice. Hey, F and Dm are pretty darned close, aren't they?! But the audience wasn't expecting that and it's still results in a pleasantly resolving cadence. This can be effective in funk because you often create motifs (repeating patterns) and when one starts to get stale a sub may be perfect. In disco, being so melodic, not so much.
If you want to add a jazz feel play around with the 6th ala Robben Ford.
But notice here, I'm never once addressing scale or mode. And, its musical, not technical.
Playing scales sounds like - scales. Forcing modes can result in really bad note choices and boring linear lines that don't pull in the listener.
Do I ever get lost? Of course, all the time but that's when I'll go modal until I find my way, and when I do, I almost always will use the same Ionian scale patterns to find my way. I just shift the pattern to the closest place on the neck I need to be to have that set of intervals line up with the mode I want. Example, I'm over a Cm and I feel a brain fart coming on, I simply switch to an Eb Ionian scale until I feel a new direction.
It might sound complicated but trust me, after you do this stuff enough you'll see it all laid out on the fretboard as clear as day and wonder what all the fuss was about. You can do it, you just need to get the theory under your belt to see it.
So back to disco and why it can be really, really challenging for a player. First off, it's a pretty widely defined genre. From Donna Summers, to The Rolling Stones, to Kool and the Gang. Kool and the Gang is a great example because they really are a blend of funk and disco, so you may end up with all the challenges of a one-chord vamp with a melody all over a funk groove. Think about that. Not for the faint of heart. Or Tower of Power, or Buddy Miles, or Rufus. You have got to be dead-effing-balls on the funk all while improvising. But when it's happening, it will make the hair on the back of your neck stand up. Instead of a bunch of drunkards in Tee shirts and ripped jeans making devil horns and screaming, you get everyone from toddlers to great-grandmothers up and grooving. They can't help themselves.
And remember always with funk or disco - timing is everything. Lot's a stabs on say the second sixteenth of the fourth beat kind of stuff. You can't be sleeping or just "feelin' it".
Metal, meh, I'm too old to be angry and rebellious all the time. And it doesn't pay.
So where I rarely stick to a modal/scales approach, if you want to start down this road I would say start by leaning a couple different Ionian scale patterns key of C. Next play the C Ionian scale over an Am chord and listen to what just happened and then figure out what mode of the Key of A that is. Next, play the C Ionian scale over a G7 chord and figure out what just happend and what mode of the key of G that is. Those three modes will make you a pretty versatile rock or blues player. Then taking what you learned move to other keys and modes. While using the scales pay attention to the big three intervals, the I, III and V. Those are the magic tones that always work.
Then, when you think you know what you're doing, put on Mozart and be totally humbled.
I could probably write a book so we're only scratching the surface here and others have already written better books than I could anyway so let's stop here. This is an amp thread, not a theory thread.
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