Chord And Schale Question

I play chords that i kinda came up with myself.

Like for example

E------------------------
B------------------------
G------------------------
D----2----4----6----8----
A----2----4----6----8----
E------------------------

Can i still play like existing scales on top of them?

When i play this chord progression

E------------------------
B------------------------
G------------------------
D----2----2----2----2----
A----2----2----2----2----
E------------------------

Guitar Pro says its an E Chord because of the Root E Note on the D String.
Can i play the E-scale stuff on top of this?
For example E-Major.



It is my own style so, its not traditional i know but well it sounds good :P
If someone can help me with this, thanks very much :D

yep, you could play in E major or minor over the second set of tabs. It's really just a power chord that's been inverted.

is that first chord an "Em"?

Well yes and no, its part of E Minor, i dont play the whole chord.
It are the notes where you put the fingers in an E-Minor.
Like i sayed, it is kinda my own style (It comes naturaly)

Your first example is this progression:

E5, F#5, G#5, A#5

These aren't really "made up chords".. they are existing chords without the third, or the note that defines tonality.

You are in E Lydian. Use this scale if you would like to solo over that progression.



I found this by the following:

You progression has 3 whole step intervals. Knowing the pattern of scales (WWHWWWH), we know you are starting on the IV of the Ionian scale. This puts us in the Lydian, and also says our E5 could be an E major chord.

If you wanted to play full chords, you'd have E major, F# major, G# minor, A# dim.


Good luck with your playing!

@t Just Jeff,

thanks a lot man, im just struggling with this a lot, trying to find my way, this site gives me a lot of insight.

Depent what you want to sound like. Just from those chords, I can think up a number of compositional ideas which would fit on top.

But, if you are asking, is there a scale that will sound "good" no matter what notes you hit from the scale, then the answer is no.

If you enter all the chords in the reverse guitar scale tool, you get B Japanese, but that doesn't mean playing that scale will sound overl musical, since a lot of exotic include notes that are derived from sitar like effects. On guitar, you would hit a note then fast bend up and down a half tone to get that sound.

One idea is to play a pentatonic style riff and just move it up the neck for each chord. Somewhat surf style music, but kinda cool if you get the riff and tone correct.

You could play a B lonian and then on the last chord swap to a B lydian, but if not done correctly it would sound more like a mistake, rather than a musical creation.

The last idea is to just play major bar chords for each. Its somewhat weird sounding, but can be made musical with the right strumming a single note picking.

Kinda like Joy Division.