location of riffs

I don't know that this is neccesarily theory. My question is, how do I know what fret to start and finish a solo in a given key. This must be entirely elementary, but after 10 yrs, I still can't figure out what scales to play with each chord. I.E. where is the pentatonic scale for the major key A and what scale do I incorporate for the changes from the root A to D&E?

General practice, unless you're a jazz player, is to start and begin a solo on the root note of the scale. If you're playing in A major, you'd start your solo on A and eventually resolve back to A. To find the pentatonic scale for A, jump down a step and a half to the relative minor, F#. The F# minor, A major, pentatonic scale should sound just fine over that I-IV-V progression you mentioned.

start and stop on the root !?!? ho-hum, your going to ruin the poor guy Christoph.

:cool:

I said it's general practice! You can start on any crazy thing you want, but blues and rock players usually start their solos at the root.

looks like I've started a fight between you guys. So I play country/rockabilly and classic rock. I'm trying to figure out some of this new country stuff and it's losing me in the chord changes. Maybe I'm playing the wrong scale? is their some new secret these guys have?

Use a Major Pentatonic with an added blues note borrowed from the relative minor blues scale for a nice country sound.
EX: G= G A Bb B D E
A lot of country players incorporate a lot of chromatics into their playing. Try taking a two note motif and walking it down chromatically until it resolves into the chord.
EX (to be played over G maj); D F, Db E, C Eb, B D.

A lot of Rockabilly players will incorporate BeBop licks into their solo's, this may be something you want to check out.

Reccomended listening; Check out Duke Levin, great player, primarly country but incorporates a lot of different styles into his playing.

Where's Skee when you need him?

You are totally not alone. I've been playing guitar since high school. I'm 30 now (yikes) and it's only been recently that I started putting everything together to where I have a clue as to what scales go with what chords, etc... The problem is that guitar players have too many choices as to which notes to play and which fingerings to use to play those notes. It stunts your ability to build a frame of reference. That's why you may know your scales, you may know chords, but you don't know how they all go together.

yep, these guys are giving me some good stuff I think. But I don't know the notes they are describing. I can read tabs, but not music. EX: where is E in the Gmaj scale? I may never know all that or even how to find out. I know that the top string open is E and so is the bottom. Also, the 7th fret 2nd string from top is E I think....How do guys learn that note stuff and how do they "walk" around and stay in that note?