[pjchappy]

Anyone know what scale these notes are in?

D E F# A B (Unless I missed a note, these are all the notes in the Comfortably Numb solo)

Thanks!

p

[eico1]

First question is do you have a the appropriate vintage effects?

"While recording The Wall, Gilmour favored his Big Muff pedal, an MXR Phase 90, an Electro-Harmonix Electric Mistress, an Orange Treble/Bass booster, an Arbiter Fuzz Face, and custom tone pedal..."

steve

[pjchappy]

Hehe.  I DO have a Big Muff. . .and a multi-fx pedal.   

Not yet trying to learn that solo.  Just teaching myself theory, etc.

I have noticed w/ some distortion, a touch of delay, and a little flanger, I can get a bit of the Gilmour sound, though.

[ooheadsoo]

basic pentatonic scale, if that's what you mean.

[jules]

one sharp ... F#, gives you G major

jules

[pjchappy]

one sharp ... F#, gives you G major

jules

That's what I was looking for!  Thanks!

So, the entire G major scale would be G A B C D E F# G, correct?

[Daygloworange]

Anyone know what scale these notes are in?

D E F# A B (Unless I missed a note, these are all the notes in the Comfortably Numb solo)

Thanks!


p

That's a D major pentatonic.

G A B C D E F#   is a G major.


Cheers

[jules]

yes ... and so on

With sharps, the scale is named according to the next letter up the scale.

The sequence is one sharp, F#[G major]., two F# and C# [D major], three F#, C# and G# [A major] and so on if you can see the pattern on a clef

jules

[ooheadsoo]

It's ambiguous because there are only 5 notes.  Daygloworange is right, based on this info, all we can say that is that it has the pattern of a typical D pentatonic, not enough info to say that it is a G major.  I wouldn't even call it D "major" pentatonic.  Pentatonic is the mode, major is a different mode.

[jqp]

But you should be able to tell by listening to the song, unless he wanted it to be ambiguous 

[ooheadsoo]

I haven't heard the song - but to make things even more fun, people often solo in a different mode than the song.  Say, the song is in a major mode, but the solo is technically pentatonic.  Whatever.  I'm just saying that from the notes given, we cannot establish the major mode.  Song starts in b minor, does some sequencing, the first elec guit solo is in D.  Second solo is basically in b minor.

[pjchappy]

This scale and mode stuff is all new to me.  I usually just write songs by ear, w/o knowledge of the scales I'm using.  I am trying to teach myself theory, etc.  

How does the pentatonic scale progress?  (in terms of. . .a major scale goes Root, whole step, whole step, half, 3 wholes, half)

ooheadso, you haven't heard comfortably numb! 

anyways, any suggestions on decent online lessons?  guitarnoise.com has some that I'm looking over, but the site doesn't seem as organized as it used to be.

[Blackmore]

Try this link for a quick, easy pentatonic primer.  Works in major and minor scales and some suggestions where to use this type of soloing approach.  Get in touch with Mike D from GAS and see if he has any ideas for self guided guitar learning. He's a music teacher and a guitarist.  Good combo!!!!!!

http://www.zentao.com/guitar/theory/pentatonic.html

[ooheadsoo]

Just checked out comfortably numb on youtube.  Gave a few of my opinions on the keys in the previous post.  Establishing the key is just the slightest bit tricky because the song does have some modulation and sequencing.

Pentatonic scale is technically any collection of 5 notes.  Traditionally, we think of them as (soundwise and stepwise) the 5 black keys on the piano.  Prime example of pentatonic mode melody over a different mode is the hymn Amazing Grace.  Melody is pentatonic, but the harmony is traditionally major mode.  What makes things more confusing, technically, is that people often don't stick with a given mode strictly.  If you want to get geeky, you can call it mode mixture.  But it's not all that hard to use in practice, especially when soloing.  You can think of it as breaking out of the box or adding color, etc.

I'm afraid I don't know of any good theory websites.  Even when I learned it at school, my professor was amazing, but his own textbook that he wrote and we used was... 

[pjchappy]

Ooheadsoo, if this helps, here's a chorded out version of Comfortably Numb:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/tabs/p/pink_floyd/comfortably_numb_ver2_crd.htm

[Daygloworange]

pjchappy,

C major goes like this: C D E F G A B

The modes go like this:

(C)Ionian  (D) Dorian  (E)Phrygian  (F)Lydian  (G)Mixolydian  (A)Aeolian  (B)Locrian.
  (root)       ( sec.)     (M third)      (fourth)      (Dom. fifth)     (sixth)     (seventh)
  (Major)                                                                     (Relative minor)

The major scale contains all the modes. The "modes" are just the way they give a name to the pattern so that you can recall it. It's very confusing for people, because it's usually taught as pattern variations starting from the note "C". Rather than seeing it as patterns that exist in the Ionian (Major) mode, but starting on the different modes of the Major scale.

Every Major tonality has it's relative minor tonality. In Major, the relative minor is always the sixth tone of the Major scale.

In Minor, the relative Major is the third tone of the Minor scale.

A Minor scale ( Relative minor to C Major. Notice no sharps or flats)

A(Aeolian)      B(Locrian)     C(Ionian)      D(Dorian)      E(Phrygian)    F(Lydian)     G(Mixolydian)
   Root              (Sec)        (Min. Third)     (fourth)      (Dom. Fifth)     (sixth)         (seventh)

The variation to the A minor is the "Harmonic Minor". The Harmonic minor is a synthetic scale. The seventh is sharp (G#). This is known as a "leading tone".

The A "Harmonic" minor scale:  A B C D E F G#.

Cheers

[ooheadsoo]

And we also have other arbitrary modes, such as the pentatonic mode, as mentioned earlier.  That is not based on the C scale, but is something that we originally find appearing all over the world, indigeonously, independant of western harmony.  Septatonic, octatonic, blah blah.  Most of them you won't find in popular music except for the pentatonic.

Thanks for the chord/lead sheet.  Personally, they don't help me music theorywise since gathering theoretical information from the absolute chord values written on paper is one of my weaknesses.

[Daygloworange]

Penatatonic modes are predominant in Eastern (Asian) music.

Pentatonic minors are the basis of "The Blues" in Western music.

Phrygian and Harmonic Minor are prevalent in Eastern (Indian). 

 (European)Classical music is based on the Modal system I described earlier.


Cheers

[ooheadsoo]

Pentatonic is strangely prevalent just about everywhere in the world.  For example, Amazing Grace is just the tip of the iceberg.  The asian stereotype is just that, in this case.  It is often cleverly disguised.  Don't forget about phrygian and lydian modes all over metal 

[jules]

I'm not familiar with guitar chords but the reference provided by pjchappy shows a scale of 6 notes [the only one missing being F]. In addition the symbols "Em" and "Bm" are used. I'm not familiar with this form of notation but could it be E flat and B flat? In which case are we looking at B flat major or is that too simple?

jules