Help with a solo

[LesPauI+SG=Win]

Ok this song Oblivion by mastodon has a amazing awesome solo. Very soulful

Heres what I cant figure out

Ok 2 questions:

1. What mode/scale is in the fast technical part of the solo?

2. I know it changes key after the fast part, but to what? It starts out in key of D (tuned down a whole step so it would be C technically) and my ears know its changing key. Cant figure it out.

Heres the song and the solo starts around the 2:50 mark. You will know what im talking about. If not, ask me and ill verify

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcErNWtw1o]YouTube - Mastodon-Oblivion (Official Music Video)[/ame]

 

[Quill]

Wow - that's great stuff. I don't listen to a lot of the harder stuff anymore, but I do like that band. A friend gave me a copy of the album with the whale on the cover, but I loaned it out and never got it back. Too bad, I liked it.

I only have time to give it a quick listen, but it really sounds to me like a melody based on very tasty, straight-forward minor scale work, with a nice use of blues - doesn't sound at all to me like he's thinking about an unusual mode. Hear how it gets kinda bluesy when he kicks it up? I think he's doing it by bringing the flat 5 into the scale. And like I said, I just listened once but I don't think I heard a lot of the 6th degree of the scale, once the fast stuff starts ... not sure, but I think that's the change. Adding the b5 and dropping out the 6th (speaking strictly about a natural minor scale, it would be the b6) from your lines does change the mood a lot - it makes a nice transition in a rock solo from a dark, moody passage into something a little punchier and more aggressive - without having to think about a change of mode. Everybody does this, and it always sounds great. He does it really well - sounds like a grounded player - someone who can play a blues as well as he does anything else. Jeez, I had a chance to see them here a while ago but didn't get it together - I really regret missing them, after hearing that.

What I would do is start by figuring out the bass line. Then listen to the background parts and sort out how they connect, and you'll have it. That will probably give you all the clues you need to sort out the key changes. They are nice, well worth some work to sort them out. Thanks for the post.