THIS MONTH I WANT to revisit a topic covered some years ago, which is soloing over a straightforward blues progression using jazz ideas. So we’ll be exploring our soloing options on a three-chord progression, and talking about how jazz and fusion players might approach the sequence. For this, I’m going to use a standard 12-bar blues in the key of A (Ex l) and look at three different soloing approaches.
The most straightforward way to play on this sequence is by using the A minor pentatonic and blues scales over the whole progression, a sound with which I am sure we are already very familiar, This is a classic, great sounding approach but, from a jazz perspective, doesn’t really pin down the chord changes. One way to do this while still using the pentatonic scale is to try playing a different pentatonic scale for each chord; so on the A.7 you would use A minor pentatonic, on the D7 you would use D minor pentatonic and on the E7 you would use E minor pentatonic (Ex 2). This idea is used by players like Robben Ford, Scott Henderson and Larry Carlton as it still keeps the bluesy pentatonic sound, but follows the chords more closely and, as such, sounds a bit more interesting harmonically.

One thing to be careful of with this approach is the minor 3rd in each pentatonic scale. A minor pentatonic sounds acceptable over the A7 (despite the clash between the С in the scale and the C# in the chord) but it gets a bit much with all three chords. You will notice that I have got around this in the audio by bending the minor third in each scale up towards the major 3rd, which, along with being a great blues sound, also pins down the chords more strongly. If you are interested in exploring this approach further, try using dominant 7th arpeggios for each chord, or adapting the pentatonic scale so that it contains a major 3rd rather than a minor 3rd.
The second solo (Ex 3) ventures more into rock/fusion territory by taking a modal approach to the sequence. Blues is based around dominant 7th chords, so if we are thinking modally, the Mixolydian mode would be the obvious choice. Over the A7 chord we could use A Mixolydian (А В C# D E F# G) but, unlike the pentatonic scale, A Mixolydian will not work over the other two chords, so we need to change to D Mixolydian (D E F# G А В С) over D7 and E Mixolydian (E F# G# А В С# D) over E7. The solo combines these scales with a bit of arpeggio substitution and throws in some Robben Ford, Carl Verheyen and Larry Carlton ideas for good measure.
Solo three (Ex 4) takes more of a jazz/ fusion approach and is probably the most taxing, at least in harmonic terms. For this solo we are venturing into the dark realms of melodic minor modes, along with a smattering of outside and chromatic ideas. We have talked quite a bit about the altered scale (mode 7 of melodic minor, in A: A Bb С Db Eb F G) in previous columns (in a nutshell, you can play it over any dominant 7th chord that is resolving to a I chord). On a blues progression, there are two points at.