How to Improvise with Phrygian Dominant on Guitar

How to improvise with the Phrygian dominant scale

Three ideas are enough to start:
target notes, short motifs and call and response.

Improvising in Phrygian dominant is not running the scale up and down over a chord. It is choosing which notes to land on, repeating a small idea until it becomes a phrase, and leaving space between phrases. The backing tracks at the end of this page give you a groove and a progression in every key.

The player above shows the chords of the scale. Press one and its arpeggio lights up over the faded scale: those lit notes are your targets while that chord sounds.

Target notes: land on the chord tones

Any scale note can pass by, but the strong beats belong to the chord:
its root, 3rd, 5th and 7th.

Over E, aim for E, G# and B; when the chord moves to F, land on F, A or C. The half steps between those chords are the sound of the scale: G# moving to A, B moving to C, E moving to F. Play the other notes of the scale as passing notes between targets, on the weak beats.

Start by playing only chord tones, one per beat, changing with the chords. Then add one passing note between them. That is already a melody that follows the harmony.

Motifs: one idea, many variations

A short phrase repeated and changed is easier to follow
than a long run of new notes.

Play three or four notes, for example F G# A G#, and repeat them in the next bar starting on another beat. Then change one note so it fits the new chord, move the motif to another string, or play it twice as slowly. Listeners hear the idea come back, and the solo sounds composed.

Call and response in a Phrygian dominant solo

Ask a question, then answer it:
a phrase that stays open, followed by one that comes home.

End the first phrase on a tense note, the b2 or the 4th, and leave a little space. Answer with a phrase that ends on the root or the 3rd. Over a four-bar progression the call takes two bars and the answer the other two. The silence between them is part of the music.

Phrasing over the I bII vamp

The two-chord vamp of flamenco is the best place to start:
every bar of bII asks to fall back home.

Over E and F, the F chord pulls everything down a half step: A falls to G#, C to B, F to E. Lean on those notes over the F bar and resolve them on the E bar. The first track, in E, is built on this move, and the chord progressions page explains every progression the tracks use.

How to practise with the backing tracks

One track a day, three times through:
chord tones only, then motifs, then free.

The first time through, play only the target notes of each chord. The second time, pick one motif and vary it. The third time, improvise freely with call and response. Slow tracks, like the one in C# at 70 BPM, are the easiest to start with; the table lists every track with its chords and tempo.