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how do you know witch scale to use over a chord progression?

and how do i learn how to build up a good chord progression to fit a scale?

Well dude, this is what i do for when i'm trying to figure this out too....

a few things you need to think about first includes - what overall sound, emotion or quality your feeling in the first place and the chord progression chord qualities your using ie = Dominant chords or minor chords, Maj7th etc, your going to be - or thinking of using!

Once you have that figured that out then you can figure out the key that the chords are coming out - it may be diatonic (they all belong in the same key) or even Non Diatonic (not in the same key)

Once you got the key then get the keys major scale then harmonise the notes which will give you the chords you are using, then with that done you'll be in a better position like for example if you play C Maj, F Maj and G major triads, then cause you've harmonised the C major scale as C is a major chord and so is F and G which then means if you do some reasearch and find the intervals of scales etc You'll be on your way to figuring out what scale can be used on top of a major sounding progression.

So C Major scale (when harmonised) is Cmaj, Dminor, Eminor, FMajor, GMajor, AMinor, B Diminished.

If you have picked C,F,G chords (which is a 1,4,5 progression) then their all Major sounding which then means you can use any scale that uses the major tonalities such as Major Pentatonic, the relative Minor Pentatonic, or the blues Scale which is the key minor pentatonic but has the flat5 interval included, or even use the modes too like mixolydian etc, the world is your oyster.

I hope this helps you out, im sure other people here have other ways too which will help you!

heres Dave Weiner explaining how to figure out what chords you can use for a certain scale
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-Xpw3aSeLE

http://daveweiner.com/rotw.html
check his other videos too, he goes into other stuff about figuring out what scales and chords to use

first find what key your chords are in then play a scale in the same key, should sound fine

Just identify your root in that chord progression, whether it is major or minor. After that, you pick the scale that fits that chord progression, and play it until it's second nature...

Example: if you play something like: Am - Fmaj - Cmaj - G, your root is A minor(how easy is that!), so that's your scale: A minor, or A aoelian(same shit, different name)... Play it up and down until your family and neighbors get sick of you...

Can you deconstruct chords in triads? Like A minor would be A(root note), C(third) and E(fifth)??? I hope you do, otherwise this won't make sense(this has been explained in this forum many times, just look it up)!!! Anyway, deconstruct each chord in that progression and make sure every time you hear a new chord in the song, you must hit one of the notes that form the chord that's being played(mmm... Duh?)

Example: We are in A minor, the scale is A, B, C, D, E, F, G(pretty straight forward, huh?)... Each triad would be:

Am: A, C, E
Fmaj: F, A, C
Cmaj: C, E, G
G: G, B, D

I'd avise you to start at a slow tempo...


First chord: Am!!! Play either the note A, a C or an E, and then go nuts(all over the scale if you want!)... when the second chord comes(Fmaj), hit either one of the notes included in that triad (F, A or C), go nuts, and so on... I swear, people will think that you know what you're doing!!!

This is a really basic approach, but one must learn to crawl before starting to walk, right? Granted, your solos will be very basic, but learning how to land in the "right" note is valuable enough to make you try this exercise. After you have played around with this for a while, start working on your expression and dynamics(which notes are hammered on, pulled off; which ones you slide to, which ones you vibrate)... Do that for a couple months, and after you have memorized the A minor scale over the whole fretboard, that's when the real fun starts...









Transpose that progression to all 12 keys!!! and play it 'til the whole world hates your guts...











After a year, post your progress on youtube and we'll take it from there...