Scale choice can and will greatly affect the outcome of any melody line in a song. This songwriting lesson will explore one of the best scales that a guitar player can use when they are composing well connected melody
One of the more common questions that will be sent into Creative Guitar is,
“How can I write the guitar melody to be played in a song?”
THE MELODY PROCESS:
When it comes to writing melodies, it is important to remember that the major and minor pentatonic scale is always one of our best scales.
The pentatonic scale offers guitar players a fast path (along with great deal of melodic strength), when it comes to composing melody for guitar.
The major and minor pentatonic scales contain two powerful melodic opportunities. The first is its connection to triad chord types, and the other is its options of nice sounding chord extensions.
When musicians are developing melody lines for a song section the scale tones that are a part of the Pentatonic can quickly become options for some fantastic note selections due to how they are the strongest notes that are found within the key.
Study each section of the example piece and determine how you can build solid melodies using the major or minor pentatonic scale.
Scale types in our song include:
- Intro. | B Minor Pent./ Dorian and A Major
- Verse | A Major
- Bridge | F♯ Minor
- Chorus | B Minor Pent./ Dorian and A Major
- Guitar Break | Pre-established Melody
- Guitar Solo | *Not Included Here
- Breakdown | F♯ Minor
- Out Chorus | Same as previous Chorus
Thank you for participating!
An MP3 jam track of this lessons practice piece is available for download in SONGWRITING Part One – Harmony, Form and Layout
*The Next lesson in this series will cover the creation of a guitar solo.