Mixolydian Doublestops

EVERY CHORD PROGRESSION you’ll ever play over will have a tonal centre and is therefore modal in nature. The tonal centre is where a chord progression resolves to and is often the first chord in a musical progression. Understanding tonal-centre resolutions will help you determine which scales and arpeggios to use when improvising. Furthermore, phrasing your ideas towards the tonal-centre chord and resolving your lines on a chord tone is key to sounding like a professional-level player.

In this issue’s column, we’re going to take an A Mixolydian progression (a chord progression in the key of D that resolves to the V chord) and combine bluesy doublestops with the A major and A minor pentatonic scale to create a 20-bar solo.

Doublestops can be defined as two notes of a different pitch being played at the same time. We often hear doublestop 4ths, 5ths, octaves,

Combining doublestops with single-note lines is a great way to add melodic variation in the context of a solo

major and minor 3rds and 6ths used in blues, R&B, jazz and country music. Doublestops can also be seen as chord fragments and are often used in a solo to outline the chord progression and create memorable motifs that are harmonically rich and resolute.

Combining doublestops with single-note lines is a great way to add melodic variation in the context of a solo. You’ll find all of the common doublestop shapes within your chords and scale shapes – making them easy to locate and use for both rhythm and lead guitar applications.

Here’s the two-bar progression we’ll be playing over – it’s a V-I-V-I-IV in the key of D major: II: A D/F# A D/F# I G5/2(#11) :II

Let’s do a quick analysis of the progression then. All three chords are diatonic (within the same scale) to the key of D major. A major is the V chord, D/F# is a first inversion I major chord, and the G5/2(#11) is a nice variation on the IV chord.

The tonal centre of this progression is the A major chord, making this an A Mixolydian chord progression. We could use the D major scale (A Mixolydian mode) to improvise over this progression, but I thought it would be fun to evoke a variety of flavours in our solo by combining the A major and A minor pentatonic scale with a variety of doublestops. The characteristic note of the A Mixolydian b 7th mode is the note, (G) so you’ll be hearing me target this tone throughout the solo to reinforce the modality.

I highly recommend using your fingers and thumb (or pick and fingers) to play all five examples. Have fun with my licks and then create your own solos over this progression. www.robbiecalvo.com