I'm a newb to music theory, and I've been trying to learn it (on piano, no less) and I understand that when there's a C minor chord being played, I can solo over the top of it with a C minor scale because the chord itself is just select tones from the scale. What I'm having trouble understanding is what makes certain chords sound good together?
I stopped your question here. Piano is a good way to "see" theory. What makes certain chords sound good together. All chords in a specific key will sound good with each other. Why? They are made from notes found within that specific key's scale. Chords in the key of C are made from the C scale's notes. One of the great WOW's of music is that melody notes and the chords used under them should share some of the same notes together. When they do they harmonize. Yep, it's that simple. That sharing of notes unfolds through out Western music. If your melody line and your chord progression share some of the same notes it'll harmonize and sound good.
Also, if a song has multiple chords in its progression, is there any kind of scale that I can use to solo through all of the chords? Right now I just find out what chord is being played, and then play its scale, but it seems like there should be one scale you can use for a whole song.
Like notes --- If the song is using the C, F and G chords Those chords will have these notes in them:
C= C, E, G
F= F, A, C
G= G, B, D
What scale has all of those notes, not one more, just those notes? C scale or C, E, F, G, A, B, C. So you could use the C major scale over that entire song. Grab hold.
You could use the .....
C major scale over the entire song.
C major pentatonic over the entire song.
C Blues over the entire song. Some of the notes will not match, but, it's the Blues which takes liberties and we have grown to like it.
F major pentatonic over the F chord.
G Major pentatonic over the G chord. Now if the song had one of the keys minor chords in the progression, say the Am chord --- the A Minor pentatonic scale over that Am chord would work, if it had the Dm chord, yep, the D Minor pentatonic would work over the Dm chord.
Why? We talked about the C major scale having notes found in the C, F and G chords. So your melody line is going to harmonize very nicely with those three chords as all of the notes within the chords come from the C major scale.
F major pentatonic has these notes. F, G, A, C, D. All three of the chord tones in the F chord and two safe passing notes. The passing notes of G and D are found in the C Scale.
G major pentatonic has these notes. G, A, B, D, E. Again all three of the chord tones in the G chord and two safe passing notes. So when you gather your notes for your solo; chord tones on the down beat (1 and 3) passing notes on the up beat works great.
Let's look at that Am chord. Am = the A, C, E notes. The A minor pentatonic scale is the made up of the A, B, C, E, F chord so......... like notes.
Sorry if this seems disjointed or incoherent, or at the very least poorly worded. I just want to understand how the chords in a song relate to its key because right now I don't understand the relationship.
If this did not do it ask specific questions - someone will answer.
