Topics created by Rostislav

@rostislav
Hi Rostislav!
Thank you for the very good question about the lesson "Voice Leading VOL. 1" !

In this lesson, (since it's volume 1) we mostly focus on the top voice of the chord, and we learn how to be creative and play melodies on top of the chord progressions using the diatonic major scale as well as arpeggio lines that connects the chords in a nice way. This is step one in learning about voice leading on guitar. How to be melodic in your chord melody and when you accompany someone on the guitar. This also helps you to learn more voicings on the instrument, which is important when you want to take the next step towards more advanced harmony and "voice leading" playing.

You can definitely use the concepts when you're creating your own arrangements, but this lesson is made for anyone who plays guitar and not necessarily only solo fingerstyle guitar players. In other words, these concepts works great no matter what constellation you're playing in.. solo, duo, or in a band setting.
In Vol. 2 however (this lesson is what I'm working on at the moment and will be released later this month), we're focusing more on the chromatic alterations, and how these voices can be moved in common chord progressions.
How to create great sounding progressions and voice leading, and how to use more altered chords in your accompaniment or solo guitar playing!
Stay tuned for Voice Leading VOL. 2, which I hope you'll enjoy too! :)

Have a wonderful week Rostislav, and thanks for being part of our community!
Kind regards/Emil

@Rostislav
Hi there!
Thanks for the question!

The first thing you need to ask yourself when playing over a new song is "What key is this song in?".
When you've figured that out, you can use the pentatonic scale of that key. For instance, if the song is in A minor, you can use the A minor pentatonic scale (which is the same as C major pentatonic, since A minor is the relative minor for C major).

I think what you're really asking about though, is if you can use different minor pentatonic scales over each chord, much like we talked about in the lesson (but we talked about major pentatonic scales).
And the answer is Yes you can!
For instance.. if you play over a song in C major, and the chord E minor shows up, you can definitely use the E minor pentatonic over that chord. This will outline the changes even more than using the C major pentatonic (or A minor, ,same thing)..

And if a D minor chord shows up, you can use the D minor pentatonic, and if a A minor chord shows up you can obviously use the A minor pentatonic.

So rather than just using the C major pentatonic (or A minor pentatonic, same notes) over a song in C major or A minor - try using the pentatonic scale from the root of the chord you're playing over. This is a concept that works and will outline the changes more.
Note: All the notes of Am pentatonic, Em pentatonic, Dm pentatonic is actually within the key of the C major scale, (or A minor scale). So you'll never get outside of the key, you'll just outline each chord more playing this way. It's a cool concept!

Another thing that I like to use to get another flavour is for instance, if you're playing over an A minor chord (and we're in the key of A minor), try using a minor pentatonic scale up a 5th from the chord you're playing over. So over Am, that would be a E minor pentatonic scale. This gives you some other flavours and sounds! It will give you an Am11 sound... And it's really nice to hear that 9 (B note) over that chord! Try it out!

Have a wonderful day!
Kind regards/Emil

@Rostislav
Hi!

Glad you like the lesson! :)

One of the things I focus on in that lesson is the use of pentatonic scales and how to "follow the chords" or "outline" the changes using pentatonic scales only. (I also talk a lot about that in the lesson "Country Guitar: Soloing Concepts".

So what I propose you try is, if you have a progression like a I IV V, in the key of C for example, it would be (two bars of each chord):

C / C / F / F / G / G / C / C /

You can play C major pentatonic over the whole progression, and it would sound good, BUT, if you try and play C major pentatonic over the C chord, and then F major pentatonic over the F chord, and then G major pentatonic over the G chord, you'll notice that this will outline the changes much more.
Did you try that concept yet?

When I create solos I use all the knowledge that I have, and it's from experience, years of transcribing my favourite musicians solos or licks/lines, and I've had many good teachers that has helped me to learn how to use the different scales and arpeggios etc. So I don't have a short answer for the last question.

Kind regards/E