Lets have some sample progressions and what to do with them.

[degenaro]

each chord duration is one bar for the Em and A7, 2 bars for the D...

Em-A7-D

Or make 'em all 7th chords...
Em7-A7-Dmaj7..or better tell me what you'd use for it, and then record it.


Here's a practice loop...8 bars at 105 bpm... Em7-A7-Dmaj7-Dmaj7-Em7-A7-Dmaj7-Dmaj7

 

[War Admiral]

I got to get one of those little Guitar Ports or Pods so I can plug right into my PC and have fun with stuff like this.
I'm on vacation to boot too and I have too much time on my hands as you can see...

 

[Jack Napalm]

Off the top I would use E Dorian over top of that. I am sure you can teach me where to take it from there.

Guess I'll have to record something now.

 

[degenaro]

Off the top I would use E Dorian over top of that. I am sure you can teach me where to take it from there.

Guess I'll have to record something now.

Well the E dorian/A minolydian/D major is the obvious choice. And clearly whenyou get to the D you wanna hit D chord tones rather than Em chord tones.
But where it gets cool is with options you have for the A7.

For starters you can use 5 different melodic minors, plus half-whole and whole tone available over the functioning dominant 7 chord. In other words when the A7 is functioning (usually up a 4th, resolving to a D maj it's functioning) you get to throw in the bad o'spice...as in all the alterations...b5,#5, b9, #9...

SO here's what you wanna try, play D major/E dorian for the first and last 2 chords, and for the second chord try...

my fave Bb melodic minor...which gives you relating to A and starting from A (up half step)...
A (root)-Bb (b9)-C (#9)-Db (3)-Eb (b5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

E melodic minor...from A (up a fifth) ...
A (root)-B (9)-C# (3)-D# (b5)-E (5)-F# (13)-G (b7)

D melodic minor from A (up a fourth)...
A (root)-B (9)-C# (3)-D (11)-E (5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

G melodic minor from A down a whole step)...
A (root)-Bb (b9)-C (#9)-D (11)-E (5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

C melodic minor from A up a minor third)...
A (root)-B (9)-C (3)-D(11)-Eb (b5)-F (#)-G (b7)

And this is what I've been saying all along...limited resources used differently yield a lot more milage than knowing a million different things stumbling on how to use it. Obviously from these options there are gonna be some you dig more or less...just hold on to those, and the way to remembere them is by just knowing your melodic minor fingering and then using the thing in parenthesis...i.e. have a functioning dominant 7 say...E7...you can use the melodic minor starting...up a half step from E which will give you F melodic minor, up a 4th...gives you A melodic minor, etc...

The other two "obvious" scale choices would be altered scale also know as half-whole scale...
which is constructed half step-whole step, half step-whole step, half step-whole step, half step-whole step...or in A..
A (root), Bb (b9), C (#9), C# (3), D# (b5), E (5), F# (13), G (b7)

And whole tone...
A (root), B (9), C# (3), D# (b5), F (#5), G (b7)

Incidentally if you look at a melodic minor scale starting on its 7th degree it's part half whole part whole tone scale...i.e

Bb melodic minor from A...
A-Bb-C-Db....half step-whole step-half step-whole step...
Db-Eb-F-G whole step-whole step-whole step-whole step

There are more choices such as mode V of Harmonic major...so D harmonic major over A7...
A (root), Bb (b9), C# (3), D (11), E (5), F# (13), G (b7)

I'm not to fond of harmonic minor up a fourth i.e. D harmonic minor over A7, if it would resolve to D m instead of D major that would be perfect...but you might dig it...
A (root), Bb (b9), C# (3), D (11), E (5), F (b5), G (b7)

 

[FIREBALL]

Off the top I would use E Dorian over top of that. I am sure you can teach me where to take it from there.

Guess I'll have to record something now.

Well the E dorian/A minolydian/D major is the obvious choice. And clearly whenyou get to the D you wanna hit D chord tones rather than Em chord tones.
But where it gets cool is with options you have for the A7.

For starters you can use 5 different melodic minors, plus half-whole and whole tone available over the functioning dominant 7 chord. In other words when the A7 is functioning (usually up a 4th, resolving to a D maj it's functioning) you get to throw in the bad o'spice...as in all the alterations...b5,#5, b9, #9...

SO here's what you wanna try, play D major/E dorian for the first and last 2 chords, and for the second chord try...

my fave Bb melodic minor...which gives you relating to A and starting from A (up half step)...
A (root)-Bb (b9)-C (#9)-Db (3)-Eb (b5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

E melodic minor...from A (up a fifth) ...
A (root)-B (9)-C# (3)-D# (b5)-E (5)-F# (13)-G (b7)

D melodic minor from A (up a fourth)...
A (root)-B (9)-C# (3)-D (11)-E (5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

G melodic minor from A down a whole step)...
A (root)-Bb (b9)-C (#9)-D (11)-E (5)-F (#5)-G (b7)

C melodic minor from A up a minor third)...
A (root)-B (9)-C (3)-D(11)-Eb (b5)-F (#)-G (b7)

And this is what I've been saying all along...limited resources used differently yield a lot more milage than knowing a million different things stumbling on how to use it. Obviously from these options there are gonna be some you dig more or less...just hold on to those, and the way to remembere them is by just knowing your melodic minor fingering and then using the thing in parenthesis...i.e. have a functioning dominant 7 say...E7...you can use the melodic minor starting...up a half step from E which will give you F melodic minor, up a 4th...gives you A melodic minor, etc...

The other two "obvious" scale choices would be altered scale also know as half-whole scale...
which is constructed half step-whole step, half step-whole step, half step-whole step, half step-whole step...or in A..
A (root), Bb (b9), C (#9), C# (3), D# (b5), E (5), F# (13), G (b7)

And whole tone...
A (root), B (9), C# (3), D# (b5), F (#5), G (b7)

Incidentally if you look at a melodic minor scale starting on its 7th degree it's part half whole part whole tone scale...i.e

Bb melodic minor from A...
A-Bb-C-Db....half step-whole step-half step-whole step...
Db-Eb-F-G whole step-whole step-whole step-whole step

There are more choices such as mode V of Harmonic major...so D harmonic major over A7...
A (root), Bb (b9), C# (3), D (11), E (5), F# (13), G (b7)

I'm not to fond of harmonic minor up a fourth i.e. D harmonic minor over A7, if it would resolve to D m instead of D major that would be perfect...but you might dig it...
A (root), Bb (b9), C# (3), D (11), E (5), F (b5), G (b7)

very cool ideas

 

[amiller]

I have to admit, this is a bit over my head and I need to take some time to work through it.