Flat 5th for Natural Minor

Hi Jim.

The usual advice is … there are no rules other than “does it sound good?”

I completely agree with that but it’s not always helpful so I’ll try to expand on it in just a few short paragraphs.

Most of what we think sounds good is subjective. Generally speaking, if the note choices are in key and not too much dissonance happening (clashing notes) then all should sound OK.

Minor pentatonic scales can sound a bit bluesy or rock-ish and often cliché, nothing wrong with that. Add the blues note and it gets even more bluesy.

Diatonic scales such as the natural minor will often sound more sweet and melodic.

What generally happens with musicians is over the course of time they will improvise over thousands of songs and various chord progressions using a whole bunch of different scales, licks, riffs and so on. Over time you get a feel for what might or might not sound good over any particular song / backing track. Sometimes we’ll throw something in that doesn’t work so we don’t try it again. What might work on one song might not work on another.

We can’t easily formulise this, we just do it by feel and using our ears. We get to this stage only by playing and experimenting for thousands of hours. Sometimes we go for something and it sounds crap, it doesn’t matter.

So you have a minor key backing track, you’re at home on your own, you can try anything you want. Throw everything you have at it and listen to how it sounds. Over time you will build up a large repertoire of scales, licks, runs etc which you’ll gradually start playing and mixing together on autopilot.

If I were jamming over a minor backing track I might try anything. I might do it out of habit and not even realise I’m doing it, or I might just try something for the hell of it and see what happens.

My first impression when listening to a song is that if it sounds really “nice and sweet,” I might decide it doesn’t want anything unexpected or harsh, I’ll just noodle around with the natural minor and maybe pay attention to chord tones. Keep everything quite consonant.

Another tune might sound a bit edgy so I’ll throw some pentatonic licks and blues notes in.

Generally, what most of us do is we have a virtual bank of ideas that we’ve played over and over including everything from licks to scales. When we’re playing something, these ideas just pop out and get used without much thought to strict theory or rules. It only gets complicated when others try to put a formula to it. Some musicians like a lot of dissonance, some don’t. We can’t put a formula to opinion and taste. I tend to play fairly consonant. Some find that boring, others prefer it.

It’s just about experience. Try it all. Arpeggios, licks, runs, riffs, minor pentatonic, natural minor and other minor scales and whatever tricks you find. Don’t rush, no-one’s listening so enjoy, don’t worry what it sounds like and just learn as you go. Keep asking questions and eventually it will come together.