Two Chord Progressions!!!

What is some good scales to play over the following Chord progressions:
Am, Cmaj, Dm, Emaj (i play A Melodic Minor (Descending) Scale but dont get a good improv sound from it.
And
Em, Am, Cmaj, Bmaj(bar chords) (same as above only in E Melodic Minor (Descending) Scale

Im looking for a Spanish/Middle eastern and maybe metal sound?
If you guys can maybe tell me the exact scale to play over it cuz my theory is abit limited.

I would really appreciate a response
Thanks!
Reinhardt

well diatonically it would be in the key of cmaj, and in the key of c maj e is.... minor! that may be why. make that an em

and for the second it wouldnt be e melodic minor but e phrygian.

HOWEVER something im learing how to do now... dont just stay in shapes and modes. follow the chords. very very detailed explation that i dont want to give because ill be wrong in some parts...

Well, in bot cases we have a major chord, where actually a minor chord should be. Looking at the first progression:
the E major contains a G# which isnt present in the Aminor scale (A H C D E F G) so what i would do is to stick to the A minor scale for the first three chords (really nice sound IMO) and then for the Emajor chord switch to the A harmonic minor scale (same scale as A melodic minor, just with the G raised to a G#. If you play over the Emaj chord really emphasize the G#! Thats really important.

For the second progression its the same. The Bmaj is not present in the key. Well, here we have the D# which is not in the scale of Eminor. So same thing again, use the E harmonic minor scale when you play over the Bmaj chord, for the rest of the progression stick to minor.

I don't know too much about spanish scales, so I'm sorry for that. Altough the Harmonic minor scale has a mode, spanish phrygian i believe its called, maybe you want to try that one out!

Nice progressions btw, great to jam on.
Hope i could help you!

oh, and i forgót, if you use the blue note (a bend on D) over the emajor, it also sounds quite nice.

Wait, they all start on minors! the first one is Eminor, Aminor, CMajor and Bmajor played very fast same with the other one!

Aminor, Cmajor, Dminor, Emajor

@EMB5490 can u please explain again, i dint understand what u were saying?
@Admiral hey man thx for the reply but i think u understood me wrong, i ment Em and Am as minors. and both chord progressions are played fast.

so progression 1 is Aminor, Cmajor, Dminor and Emajor
2 is: Eminor Aminor, Cmajor, Bmajor

if that is correct, than i don't think i understood you wrong?
And the fact that they are played fast doesn't change anything ^^

I am talking about the scales to use..AHarmonic minor scale over the Emajor in your first progression? Do you get that?

Interesting, so while im improvising in the key of A melodic Minor (descending) I just quickly play some notes of the A harmonic minor when the chord progression hits Emaj? same with the other one???

ah right, haha, thats why it went wrong. Basically when you improvise, if you want to spice everything up a little bit, you can change the scales your are using during your progression. In this case, you can play the A minor scale over the first 3 chords, but then the Emajor doesn't fit into your Aminor patter because it contains a note (G#) which is not in the A melodic minor scale. So that's why your improvisation doesn't seem to work out. So I suggested you use the A melodic minor scale to improvise over the first 3 chords and when you get to Emajor you quickly change into the A harmonic minor scale and improvise in this scale over the chord. And remember to emphasize the G# note in that scale, it will sound good, trust me.
In the other chord progression it is similar, i would also use the E melodic minor scale for the first 3 chords and then for the Bmajor use the E harmonic minor scale.

Of course there are thousands of other ways to improvise over the progression, this is just one.

hope i could help

Sound great! is there anyway I can maybe add you on skype just to hear what you can come up with and that I can show you the rhythm thats being used?
My skype name is Reinhardt3200
Thanks alot!

hm, i don't have skype, but what i maybe could do is take the chords and then improvise something and record it but i wont be able to do that until the end of the week. i can kind of imagine the rhythm, something like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lvMQCmUVv8&feature=related

gabriela is actually using the same chord progression as you did in example 1, maybe you wanna give a listen to them and see what they made out of it?

Oh my word dude, spot on! thats the progression im working on haha! and the style of music I play! U are bladdy sharp! the other chord progression is Hanuman from 11:11 new album.
Sick dude! ^_^

Thanks alot man, makes alot of sense now! you actualy opened alot of doors for me now! I should probly look into learning modes right?

well, the harmonic minor scale is an simple adjustment of the melodic minor scale (descending) as you know it. The modes are like a far bigger topic. It's not as simple as it sounds, even though you are already using two modes (major scale = Ionian mode; melodic minor scale (Aeolian mode). Before starting with modes, i would suggest that you learn the position ofe the major scale all across the fretboard in great depth, this will help you a lot with learning the modes later. For modes you need a lot more theory with the underlying chord progression etc. For a start i would suggest you have a look at the dorian mode, it is a great mode, santana (i think kind of your style) nearly plays it all the time, it#s got a nice bluesy, spanish sound. But do you understand the basic theory of modes already? and do you take lessons? because having a teacher is a great help with the modes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5K-DbaaI4wc

this lesson helped me a lot at the start to understand the basic principles. Also check out afro ravens lesson on this site!

but seriously, if you want to learn the modes, that's fine, but I would for the start stick to the major and minor scale first, because it's a very long way until you are really able to use the modes, as you have far more "avoiding notes" etc.