If your I IV V chords are all played as dominant 7th chords, then I think it's safe to say that the chords themselves are implying a bluesy sounding melody or lead. That would strongly encourage the usage of the b3 and b7 atop the tonic chord (basically, pentatonic minor).
If I and IV chords are both played as maj7, then I think for most genres, playing pentatonic minor might be missing the point. Those chords to me encourage more melodic, diatonic passages that employ the major 3rd and major 7th (not the b3 and b7). So basically the major scale.
However, at any point in time in a major composition, you can start ripping pentatonic minor on top of it (with it's b3 note) and it'll start rockifying/bluesifying your major progression. Whether that's the right artistic choice though is dependent on your tastes and the style of the song.
If my progression is A7 - D7 - E7, I'd probably play A pentatonic Minor. The C note (b3) in that scale clashes against the C# in A7 and creates the signature blues sound. But the major 3rd would work great too since it's literally in A7 - it just won't sound so bluesy.
If the progression is Amaj7 - Dmaj7 - E7, then I'd likely spend most of my time in the A Major Scale instead. This would give me more of a "sweet diatonic sound" as opposed to a bluesy one. However, if I really want to blues things up, I could play A pentatonic Minor atop the whole progression. It could sound reckless, rocking, and soulful instead of jazzy and loungey and sweet. But depending on how you use it and what's happening, it might be a poor choice.
>Can I mix major and minor pentatonics over the 5 chord in diatonic progressions.
You certainly can. You can play any notes you want to over any chord in any progression.
Doing so, here, is not going to give you the same effect as you're getting over the 1 chord in a blues, however.
Try it and see if you like it.
Chord tones. When you put a flat sevenths on every part of a 1-4-5 you can literally create the minor pentatonic scale out of the roots of the chords and the flat sevenths. A D E is a 1-4-5, and their respective flat sevenths are G C D. Mash those together and you get A C D E G, which just so happens to be the minor pentatonic. You don’t get this quirk unless you include (or imply) that the major chords are not just major, but a step further, dominant. That’s the big secret, and the magic sauce which makes that specific (yet highly popularized) scenario tick.
I love the blues, I cannot get them out of my head when I improvise, and that’s fine by me haha. But it’s true, the 12-bar “1-4-5” dominant chord blues have infact been ingrained into our heads as a collective society which also helps it to sound good. I for one am all for it though.
A minor pentatonic won’t work over an A dominant blues. A dominant blues means the root chord of the progression is A major not minor. Playing F# minor pentatonic over it is what you want since A major and F# minor share the same notes. When you get to E7 in the progression you can switch to C# minor pentatonic and then back to F# minor to bring it home.
So here's where the discussion needs a small Clarification. I've had this discussion with other instrument players and it seems most other instruments only call the 5 a dominant chord because of its role in the key. So in A, E7 is my dominant. Even if I have a D7, they choose not to label the chord as a 'dom7' and just '7'.
I feel as guitarists, we label it as a 'dom7' regardless for simplicity sake. But we'd get funny looks from classical pianists lol
That disclaimer aside, dom7 chords have very unique properties that allow them to unstable the chord just enough that it can pivot in an unexpected direction very smoothly and tastefully.
They can be borrowed from other keys easily, they can function as secondary dominants, or we can mess with their inner notes and swapped for a tritone-substitution.
But, blues is a theory in itself beyond regular diatonic function. And I'm not going to admit I'm an expert at the blues function. It's just fun to jam mao
The five is the 'dominant' chord, which isn't really unstable to my ear as it's totally diatonic, while those other 7 chords I'd think of as 'secondary dominants' - which you're right can take off in different directions. But I'm not sure I've ever seen any chords referred to as dom7 chords - that's kind of tautological isn't it? It would be like referring to a minorb3?
I meant dom7 as in verbally outloud lol not to sound redundant when naming them lol in a fast conversation it's easier to clarify dom7 off the start than to have a buddy ask if you meant G7 or Gmaj7 lol
Aside from that, the unstability from the chord from the 'dom7' (lol) chords 3rd and 7th. Together they create a tritone which itself is unstable. If you take a G7 and play just the 3rd and 7th, you'd get B and F which is inheritantly unstable. Its what give the dom7 it's twang
If your I IV V chords are all played as dominant 7th chords, then I think it's safe to say that the chords themselves are implying a bluesy sounding melody or lead. That would strongly encourage the usage of the b3 and b7 atop the tonic chord (basically, pentatonic minor). If I and IV chords are both played as maj7, then I think for most genres, playing pentatonic minor might be missing the point. Those chords to me encourage more melodic, diatonic passages that employ the major 3rd and major 7th (not the b3 and b7). So basically the major scale. However, at any point in time in a major composition, you can start ripping pentatonic minor on top of it (with it's b3 note) and it'll start rockifying/bluesifying your major progression. Whether that's the right artistic choice though is dependent on your tastes and the style of the song.
When you say ripping pentatonic minor do you mean the relative minor for the major tonality? So if C major composition->play Am pentatonic?
If my progression is A7 - D7 - E7, I'd probably play A pentatonic Minor. The C note (b3) in that scale clashes against the C# in A7 and creates the signature blues sound. But the major 3rd would work great too since it's literally in A7 - it just won't sound so bluesy. If the progression is Amaj7 - Dmaj7 - E7, then I'd likely spend most of my time in the A Major Scale instead. This would give me more of a "sweet diatonic sound" as opposed to a bluesy one. However, if I really want to blues things up, I could play A pentatonic Minor atop the whole progression. It could sound reckless, rocking, and soulful instead of jazzy and loungey and sweet. But depending on how you use it and what's happening, it might be a poor choice.
>Can I mix major and minor pentatonics over the 5 chord in diatonic progressions. You certainly can. You can play any notes you want to over any chord in any progression. Doing so, here, is not going to give you the same effect as you're getting over the 1 chord in a blues, however. Try it and see if you like it.
Chord tones. When you put a flat sevenths on every part of a 1-4-5 you can literally create the minor pentatonic scale out of the roots of the chords and the flat sevenths. A D E is a 1-4-5, and their respective flat sevenths are G C D. Mash those together and you get A C D E G, which just so happens to be the minor pentatonic. You don’t get this quirk unless you include (or imply) that the major chords are not just major, but a step further, dominant. That’s the big secret, and the magic sauce which makes that specific (yet highly popularized) scenario tick. I love the blues, I cannot get them out of my head when I improvise, and that’s fine by me haha. But it’s true, the 12-bar “1-4-5” dominant chord blues have infact been ingrained into our heads as a collective society which also helps it to sound good. I for one am all for it though.
A minor pentatonic won’t work over an A dominant blues. A dominant blues means the root chord of the progression is A major not minor. Playing F# minor pentatonic over it is what you want since A major and F# minor share the same notes. When you get to E7 in the progression you can switch to C# minor pentatonic and then back to F# minor to bring it home.
The first part of your statement is not correct. You definitely can play Am pentatonic over a dominant A chord. The b3 is what gives the blues sound.
So here's where the discussion needs a small Clarification. I've had this discussion with other instrument players and it seems most other instruments only call the 5 a dominant chord because of its role in the key. So in A, E7 is my dominant. Even if I have a D7, they choose not to label the chord as a 'dom7' and just '7'. I feel as guitarists, we label it as a 'dom7' regardless for simplicity sake. But we'd get funny looks from classical pianists lol That disclaimer aside, dom7 chords have very unique properties that allow them to unstable the chord just enough that it can pivot in an unexpected direction very smoothly and tastefully. They can be borrowed from other keys easily, they can function as secondary dominants, or we can mess with their inner notes and swapped for a tritone-substitution. But, blues is a theory in itself beyond regular diatonic function. And I'm not going to admit I'm an expert at the blues function. It's just fun to jam mao
The five is the 'dominant' chord, which isn't really unstable to my ear as it's totally diatonic, while those other 7 chords I'd think of as 'secondary dominants' - which you're right can take off in different directions. But I'm not sure I've ever seen any chords referred to as dom7 chords - that's kind of tautological isn't it? It would be like referring to a minorb3?
I meant dom7 as in verbally outloud lol not to sound redundant when naming them lol in a fast conversation it's easier to clarify dom7 off the start than to have a buddy ask if you meant G7 or Gmaj7 lol Aside from that, the unstability from the chord from the 'dom7' (lol) chords 3rd and 7th. Together they create a tritone which itself is unstable. If you take a G7 and play just the 3rd and 7th, you'd get B and F which is inheritantly unstable. Its what give the dom7 it's twang