Stash solo theory

[fulltone1989]

I'm pretty sure the progression is Dm7, Bb, Em7b5, A7b9 and when soloing over the V7 I make sure to hit on that C# to make it sound musical. Trey had a column in GW a few years back about this, I will try to find a scanner for you.

[Stiles12]

Dm7 Bb Em7b5 A7b9

This progression is exactly right.

I agree with you walker on noodling around to find notes that work. In this case with these chords I would certainly recomend starting at D aeolian or D harmonic minor. without getting too deep the dorian mode is going to leave you with a grouping of outside notes. The Dm7 is your one and anytime you are approach a m7 chord starting with aeolian would be the right approach.

Heady Jam Fan- taking each chord as a key would be a good approach but takes a long time to learn how to play modals in "windows" (window playing theory) if your learning modes or how to approach keys with coresponding modes start with some II-V-I major progressions and change modes over each chord (dorian, mixolydian, ionian)
if you know this already then yes playing scales over chords makes this thing come alive, approach this as a minor 2-5-1 using locrian over the E half diminished chord.

post up any questions if you have any, im still on this site all the time i just am not talking pedals anymore, send out some songs anyone is working on solo wise i think it would be fun for everyone to comment on what they do... we will all learn something.

[IamWILSON]

Concerning what Stiles just said above, you could also manage to just play a Gm - C7 - Fmaj (ii-V-I) over Em7b5 - A7b9 - Dm7 as well as it is the relative major to the Dmin ii-V and it will be easy to avoid resolving to the tonic in D so much (imo), which can help to create more tension by resolving to A (the 5th of D) kinda like Trey does for many of his solos.

[Heady Jam Fan]

Good points!

Walker:

As far as noodling, that is how I started, using Aeolian in the E position (12th fret) and switching to Harmonic eventually. When I did that, I didn't want to stop hitting the C#, even earlier in the progression when I 'ought' to be using the C. I found myself playing arpeggios with half step lead ins then bending the C# up to D, which seemed to get closer to Trey-esce climaxes to solos.

Also I like the idea of playing in the relative major - I think it is a similar idea to (I believe I mentioned it on another thread) playing a 5th above - really easy to switch, for example, from an E shape pentatonic to an A shape a fifth above and play as if your 'in the right key' so you resolve to the 5 rather than the one. I think that little trick helped me to 'hear' the 5 and 3 as potential resting points.

Stiles:

I played jazz years ago as a teen in a couple bands (one big band, another quartet). So I am familiar with the approach of looking at multiple keys in a short chord progression (in each chord or sets of ii V I's, I believe I first tried this on Paper Moon), but I am not good at it. Hendrix makes it easier/clear as he is pretty much moving between E and A shape pentatonics/dorians (a la Little Wing intro), but in jazz and classical, chords are tight packed and change voicings (I suppose in a window, but I have to look up that theory), which can make switching modes more ambiguous to me (especially if they contain the same or nearly all the same notes), as it is played in the same register. That makes me try to focus more on arpeggios rather than modes as the core when the chords switch, then take my note selections in between those notes more modally (more in theory than practice, unfortunately). This is something I really want/need to work on.

Stiles - any more of this type stuff is very welcome! I am also tiring of gear talk, which is one reason I have spent less time on TGP and more time here. I found your writing style to be very accessible and inspired me to take sometime to jam a bit - I don't have much free time to do the tab'ing and analysis type thing unfortunately.

[Walker done done]

Good points!
Stiles - any more of this type stuff is very welcome! I am also tiring of gear talk, which is one reason I have spent less time on TGP and more time here. I found your writing style to be very accessible and inspired me to take sometime to jam a bit - I don't have much free time to do the tab'ing and analysis type thing unfortunately.

I couldn't agree more.  Stiles adds a nice touch to this board, and I too am tiring of all the gear talk.  I just started to write "I wish we would talk more about theory, stiles of playing, etc." but I suppose I can't complain when I too am not starting any conversations.  However, hopefully this will spawn more Q&A by the board.  As Stiles said, we ALL learn when that happens!

[Heady Jam Fan]

Lol yep - I think we all start with the aspiration to play like (or close to as well as) our favorite inspiration as we can. We pick up the guitar and are no where near it, so we spend 90% of the first 15 years trading up to their gear and realized what we didn't learn along the way At least I am guilty of that far too often.

And the ironic evidence of this is that i think the Guitar Lesson forum has the least threads and posts in it! Anyway I think some of you saw, I posted some of Ted Dunbar's System of Tonal Convergence (huge influence on Trey's tension and release) in there and I thought that could provide plenty of meat for technical discussion. To keep it in the SD realm, maybe it can be applied to some Phish tunes.

Oh yea - almost forgot - Stiles does add a lot to this board! IMO that is what this board has over others: hopefully a dedication to the music because there are threads on many accessible boards that lay out the Trey Gear options.