Johnny, I would like to do some infill on AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, but it’s just not working. Could you possibly suggest something for Bb sax?
Cheers,
Dolph
Dolph, I don’t know what you’re using as the listening track but the original key for Highway To Hell is A.
So for this tune you can use the major pentatonic scale which is one of the ones used in the Killer Blues book.
You are playing along with a band that is playing in A so as a tenor player you’re in B.
B major pentatonic is B C# D# F# G#
Use the above notes for the majority of your licks
As you focus in on certain part of the song you’ll notice they use a repetetive guitar riff in the verse: G# A
adding the 7th (which is the A)
Another point to listen for is when they fall to the 5 chord (your F# note)
You may also notice that the flat 3 will also sound good in this song so that means 2 of our blues scales will work here:
the basic blues scale and the major pentatonic.
Johnny, it’s been difficult. Maybe it’s me, but I find it a difficult song.
I managed best with B, D, E, F#, A with an additional G#. I don’t know if that makes sense. I agree that the song is in concert A, thus B for my tenor.
I will keep at it.
