Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I have been watching videos from Guthrie Trapp lately and he says that he does not just use one scale in every song. He says in some of his videos that songs like Blame it on the sun by Stevie Wonder is a song you can not just use the Ab major scale over every chord change in the song. This would sound to me like the key of the song is changing but it's not. And when I play over chords I know what chord I am in in the progression a 1, 4, 5 or 6 chord or whatever to know what appropriate mode to play. If I just start playing out of another scale how would I know what mode to play and how do you know when to use multiple scales?

I also follow Guthrie and I saw that video you're talking about. He is one of the proponents of using/outlining triads and 7th chords in soloing which he demonstrated beautifully in his arpeggios and double stops. I find the diatonic triads and 7th (Theory lessons 12 and 13) and the major/minor scales (Theory lessons 1, 2 and 6) really helpful in soloing over the song. I tried to use major scale over the major chords and minor scale for the minor chords to navigate in between chords, but targeting the chord tones of the particular chord as the progression lands on it. Not sure if it's the right approach but seems to work when I tried it on looper (at a much slower speed than GT's).

As far as modes, it's more complicated than just using the modes because I think the song use some secondary dominants in the progression. I don't know enough beyond what's in the lesson here to figure it out. I also have yet to master the modes and other things here. Might be a good topic for Tomo to discuss in the future though.

So when you are saying" I tried to use major scale over the major chords and minor scale for the minor chords to navigate in between chords", you are using modes. You are probably using Ionian and Aeolion. I hate how vague guitar players are when talking about this stuff. I can play a major scale three different ways and I can play a minor scale three different ways.

If I am playing over the two chord in a g major progression I will be playing dorian which is a minor and emphasizing the 1 3 5 of the 2nd chord. if I play the 4 chord in a G major progression I am going to be playing lydian in g major and emphasizing the 1 3 5 of the 4 chord.

You created a second paragraph starting off saying "As far as modes" like this is something different you were not talking about already with the major and minor scale.

Right. I get that. But in the song you're talking about, the third chord of the verse would have been aeolian (F-) in relation to Ab but it's F7 which subdominant of the 2 of Ab. So straight up aeolian won't work. If you use part F myxo or just use the triad+7 of F, it works.

Again, just talking about the song, I kind of approached it with major/ minor triads and 7th's when I tried it and didn't looked at it entirely as a modal progression because of other chords that I thought didn't belong in the modes of Ab ionian.