In this session you’ll learn how dominant chords move through a circle-of-fifths progression like that in “Sweet Georgia Brown” (D7–G7–C7–F) through voice leading, and how to use a variety of scales and ideas to play through the circle-of-fifths progression, including the Mixolydian and Dorian modes, the swing/dominant blues scale, and the dominant 7/minor 6 pentatonic scale. Scott uses the bluegrass song “I Know What It Means to Be Lonesome” (which has a circle-of-fifths progression—E7–A7–D7–G), to illustrate these ideas with snippets of solos from Clarence White and David Grisman. He also shows you what to do when you encounter a non-diatonic chord in a song, for example the B7 in the first four bars of “The Old Home Place” (G–B7–C–G), with examples from Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice.
The musical handouts (downloadable PDFs) for the session (and all sessions) are available in three formats: notation with guitar tab, notation with mandolin tab, and notation only.
