Originally Posted by Trentb
The relative minor might explain why it works over can't buy me love, but I think he was asking in general why minor notes work over major chords. Technically they don't, but in blues they do. Same thing with singing, it's ten times better to sing flat than sing sharp, a lot of times it gives it a blues feel, and easier fixed.

But this should explain what I was trying to articulate before
http://www.fretjam.com/minor-pentatonic-over-major-chords.html

Trent, you really should read my whole post before responding.

If I play an E minor scale over a progression of G major, C major, D major - that's gonna work just fine. But if I play D minor over those same chords it won't. There is no "technically" to it. Either you're using the notes of the key or you're not. E minor & G major use the same notes.

As for the link suggesting to play E minor pentatonic (E, G, A, A#, B, D) over E A & B major - that's rather bizarre as this would only result in a minor 3rd (over the major 3rd of the chord) and the "blue" note of the tritone is now the A# which is way off - it doesn't resolve well at all with those notes. The "schooled" method would be playing C# minor pentatonic (C#, E, G, G#, A, B) over E A & B major. This allows for that tension of the minor 3rd to resolve to the Major 3rd. Said minor 3rd of E is the tritone from C# (AKA a passing tone, which is the true nature of blues - passing tones). The reality of this is that the ear will pull the resolutions to the E major, which is the relative major of C# minor.

As for whether anything sounds good sung flat or sharp or fixable - that's in the ear of the beholder. I'm not a fan of singing out of tune, regardless of style.

Jody Whitesides
A Funky Audio Lap Dance For Your Ears!
www.jodywhitesides.com