Bluegrass scales?

[Ramali]

In my very, VERY slow process of learning to play guitar, I am finally learning some scales. Curious whether any particular scale is used more often than others in bluegrass soloing? I'm sure many are used and hate generalize but can you say that one is more commonly heard, like the blues scale for blues (clever!), minor pentatonic in rock, etc. Thanks

[815C]

Well, from a simplistic view, I'll take a stab at this.

Of course you have the major scale (e.g. if a song is in the key of G, use the G major scale).

Feel free to flat the 3rd of any chord your playing against while soloing (e.g. play a Bb over a G chord, an Eb over a C chord, an F over a D chord, etc.). You can proceed from the flatted 3rd of the chord up to the raised third, or down to the 2nd, and it will sound nice:

Bb to B, or Bb to A

Eb to E, Eb to D

F to F#, or F to E

You can also play the dominant 7th of any chord and it will usually work well:

for a G chord, play an F note
for a C chord, play a Bb note
for a D chord, play a C note,
etc.

[815C]

Also, you can try some classic bluegrass licks, like.....



G

-----------------------------------------------------------
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----------------------------0-----------------------------
-----------------0--2--0---------------------------------
------0--1--2--------------------------------------------
---3------------------------------------------------------

C
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----------------------------1-----------------------------
-----------------0--2--0---------------------------------
------0--1--2--------------------------------------------
---3------------------------------------------------------
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D
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---------------------------3-----------------------------
----------------2--4--2---------------------------------
--0--2--3--4--------------------------------------------
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