bill, I appreciate the explanation. You gave me a lot to think about.
but what's a chromo?
also, G mixolydian and C ionian really confuses me.
Normally I've been soloing to bertha playing what I thought was G major. Of course I realize this is lacking, so that's why I'm asking these questions to try and go to the next step.
Also, after reading your post I was just messing around and found out that this also sounds ok in some parts.
D-E-F#-G-A-B-C-D
is this anything I should remember, or just forget about it?
You see I don't know exactly what a key is but, for most songs, there is one major scale that sounds good in almost all parts of the songs.
e.g.
A major sounds good all over Franklin's, Peggy-O, Deal, Mission and many others.
E major sounds good on gdtrfb, st. stephen
E major sounds good in most of Eyes, but for the chorus G sounds good
A sounds good for half step from what I can remember. But I think D was good for something from what I can remember?
E sounds good for Jack Straw, but maybe A was good for something also?
B for scarlet
C for harder they come
then there are the ones that it is good to switch between them
like B and E for sugaree
B and A for fire
D and A for iko
then there is something that sounds good with some scale that I figured out. Then I looked it up. I think it was Dorian? Some minor scale. but I'm confused what a mode is because for instance what I'm playing that sounds good is:
loser: A-B-C-D-E-F#-G-A
help: C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb-C
what are these? A dorian and C dorian?
but I think also G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F-A-G also sounds good for parts of help. So what is this?
anyhow, getting back to my idea that G major is the important scale for bertha. I have noticed this kind of pattern for many songs.
The important notes are the 1st, 4th and 5th notes of this scale. G, C and D. Now that I write this I remembered that bertha's chords have lots of G, C and D chords.
The reason I say important is because these are the notes it is nice to start going somewhere from when soloing.
So is G the key then? or is it C? I get confused by you saying G mixolydian and C major. From that I would think that C is the important one.
What about a song like eyes where E is prominent for the song but switches to G prominence for the solo. (and before I started playing guitar I always thought that the chorus was kind of abrupt sounding)
If you, and anyone else, could put my perspective on these things in order so that I understand what's going on then I'd be very gr8ful