The key of noodle?

[Digitised]

I used to play in a certain key, but recently ive really got a passion for atonal shredding.

I saw some really crazy buckethead tapping which kind of made me wonder how really important keys were to a solo. Soon after that i got into shawn lane, whose arpgeggios and runs pretty much made it impossible to stay in key.

If you check out his diminished an augmented runs, hes skipping position after each rythymic grouping, and even just running normal major and pentatonic scales through different keys up the neck.

I guess if you have no other backing music (maybe just drums) you can do whatever you want.
I also like to sometimes use strict scales as if im in a chord sequence, so i would just be shredding A major (with some emphasis on maj7 arpeggios) then drop into Dm after my senses tell me ive played a few bars, then just try and go somewhere interesting like Ebmaj7 then into Gm and so on...

I find it helps a bit with understanding harmonic relationships, and simply making dissonant chords work through trying to blend together their scales with unusual phrasing.


Just to give you guys a picture of shawn lanes madness check out the last few minutes of this video (skip to 6.20 ish)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqT7_fV0Yuk

[anuske9]

I guess if you have no other backing music (maybe just drums) you can do whatever you want.
I also like to sometimes use strict scales as if im in a chord sequence, so i would just be shredding A major (with some emphasis on maj7 arpeggios) then drop into Dm after my senses tell me ive played a few bars, then just try and go somewhere interesting like Ebmaj7 then into Gm and so on...

The simple or non-existent backing track allows for great freedom. If you're clever, you shouldn't ever need to know what key you're in.

[Digitised]

Thats kind of the idea ive been into

Its a great technique to be in key for a solo and gradually take the listeners off the track and wander outside of standard scales.
I believe pianists have done this for years because its easy to just shred a keyboard in a random fashion.

If you have dont it right the transition should sound like a completely new exotic scale, but i guess i really need to work on this more and strengthen up my arpeggios.

[anuske9]

Thats kind of the idea ive been into

Its a great technique to be in key for a solo and gradually take the listeners off the track and wander outside of standard scales.
I believe pianists have done this for years because its easy to just shred a keyboard in a random fashion.

If you have dont it right the transition should sound like a completely new exotic scale, but i guess i really need to work on this more and strengthen up my arpeggios.

Power chords allow for an 11-note scale because they are neither Maj/min. Speed helps for the other 2 notes. You can almost go anywhere with the right phrasing depending on how closely you pay attention to the relationship between the notes. It's very hard to do that while truly improvising, though.

I don't know what I'm trying to say here, but if you got any musical ideas/ recordings, I'll listen to them.