I recently got an email asking about ideas for playing on modal tunes. And I thought, "Great subject. I hope somebody does that some time." August's lesson, on the other hand, is about ideas for soloing on tunes that are based on only one chord or scale.

Playing an entire solo using only seven different pitches is very hard to pull off successfully. Very few people who have ever picked up an instrument have done it well. When one chord is used for the duration of a tune, you need to find other notes to add to the basic seven-note scale that corresponds to the chord. Which notes? To create interest means creating tension and the resolving it.

In the example above, D phrygian mode is played over the dorian chords, which gives you two different notes to play with: Eb the b2; and Bb the b6. Both of these notes create tension against the underlying chord/scale.

Another way to apply this idea is to add the major 7th (C#). This is particularly effective after staying with the basic scale for a while, then busting out with the major 7: