Slash's GENIUS approach to choosing scales for solos

本站添加: 2026-05-12

[00:00:00]Most guitarists struggle to choose the right scales when they're improvising solos because they're missing a crucial part of information. And in this video, I'm going to show you the simple four-step system for choosing the right scales over real chord progressions so that you can stop guessing and stop hitting the wrong notes all without learning tons of theory. And it's the exact same method that's helped me actually understand how Slash creates such melodic ideas. It's also improved my confidence when I'm improvising.

[00:00:28]>> [music] [music] >> All right, so step one is the part that everybody skips. But if you get this right, everything else gets easier. So most players look for the key chord and start improvising in a scale shape and assume that that's going to work over everything. And it sometimes might until the chord progression changes and those safe notes start sounding off. So before you play, just take 10 seconds and figure out the chords. And if you're practicing at home, just jot them down.

[00:01:12]So here's the first example chord progression.

[00:01:15]>> [music] [music] >> And if you can, label them major, minor, or anything like that. But once you get good at this, you won't need to write anything down because you'll just hear it. But at first, this makes the system actually work and you'll see why in a second. Once you got those written down, step two becomes obvious. We need to figure out what key these chords belong to and what chord feels like home. So our group of chords is going to belong to a key. And what we need to do is figure out what key these chords have come from. But there are loads of keys to choose from. So to help narrow it down and make the process faster, we need to find the most likely home chord.

[00:02:02]So, play the progression, and if we choose one of those chords to end on and just let it ring, one of those is going to feel complete and like we're at home.

[00:02:10]And whichever that chord is, we're going to assume that that's what the key is for now. It's not always that simple, but I'll show you what to do if it's not later on. If we end on the G, for example, >> [music] >> that doesn't feel finished.

[00:02:29]It's pulling us towards >> [music] >> and that feels complete. So, if C feels like the chord you could end on, then C major is the home base, most likely.

[00:02:38]Now, if you know theory, you can check which key those chords belong to, but if you don't, don't worry because I made a set of quick reference charts that are going to help you match your chords to the keys and the scale options in a second. So, if we think this is from C major, I'm going to check to see if the other chords fit. So, as you can see, everything else fits. Everything belongs to that key. So, that's the scale that I'm going to use. And in a second, I'm going to show you what to do when a chord shows up that's outside of that key. Now, the thing is, you might have run into this before where you think your chord progression is from a particular key, but then when you hit the other chord, everything goes wrong.

[00:03:14]And that's because sometimes chord progressions play tricks on us. So, let's take this chord progression, for example.

[00:03:21]>> [music] [music] >> So, we've only got two chords in that progression, and those two chords could actually come from a number of different keys. It could be from A major or E major. We can either look for other clues throughout the song. What other chords are present that might belong to a key. So, for example, there's a B that shows up later on.

[00:03:49]>> [snorts] [music] >> So, if we take that into consideration as well, that shows us that we're actually not in A major, we're in E major. Or you can just listen to what feels like the resolution.

[00:04:04]>> [music] >> And that's your key center. So, now, step three is we test it. So, we think this is C major. All you do is play something simple over each chord and listen for any wrong notes.

[00:04:26]>> [music] >> So, nothing clashes, everything sounds all right. So, C major works. Now, if you use all the notes from the major scale, it can start sounding a little bit like a scale exercise rather than music. And I'll show you how Slash uses full scales in another video. So, make sure you subscribe and hit the bell notification so you don't miss any videos. But, a good starting point is to use the pentatonic scale instead. So, if you're in major, use major pentatonic.

[00:04:53]If you're in minor, use minor pentatonic. And that's going to eliminate some of those less pleasant notes. Now, I'm sure you've probably had this before. You're jamming along, everything's going well, and then suddenly a chord pops out of nowhere, and your safe scale doesn't fit anymore.

[00:05:09]Everything sounds like it's clashing.

[00:05:11]That's not you being bad, that's what step four is for. So, if a chord doesn't fit the key, it's probably borrowed from another key. Check out this chord progression, for example.

[00:05:22]>> [music] [music] [music] >> If I stay in C major the whole time, listen to what happens when the B flat chord comes in.

[00:05:41]>> [music] [music] >> Doesn't work. And that's because B flat isn't a part of the C major scale. It's actually borrowed from C minor. So, what you can do instead is look at the parallel scale sheet, and that shows both keys in one go, so you can see it clearly. So, we've got the same root, which is C, but we've got different scale and chord options. So, all you need to do, when the chord is borrowed, is borrow the scale. So, over the B flat chord, you can switch to C minor.

[00:06:21]>> [music] [music] >> Now, the thing is, scales are really handy, and this is one way of improvising. But, with that scale-only approach, you can run into a lot of issues. So, if you want me to show you exactly how Slash creates memorable and iconic solos, watch this video next, because I break it down step by step.

[00:06:50]And if you want this whole process to be even faster, I built what's called the Solo Buddy. You basically type in a chord progression, and it shows you the chord tones and the best scale options instantly, so you can spend more time playing and less time hunting through charts. There's a link in the description.