When playing guitar scales, only the notes within that scale can be played?

Question

For example, the C maj scale is composed of A B C D E F G

I can only play chords that are composed of just those notes.

For example, just to name a few, valid chords in this scale are G maj, C maj, Dm, Em, E5, F5....

And, just to name a few, invalid chords would be A#5, F# maj, C# maj...

Is this correct?

thanx

Answer 1

Yep.

Note that when you use scales to play melodies, you can sometimes use notes outside the diatonic scale -- they're called "accidentals".  But if you're just playing the scale in order to learn it, you want to play the notes that belong to that key. And you should learn the chords that are constructed using the notes of the diatonic scale as well.

Answer 2

Hi there

Each scale has its appropriate notes but in improvisation, you can add passing tones to any of these scales.

Ex. using locrian mode before ending in a major key or whole tone scales.

As for chord progression, you can substitute any minor chords with min7th, min9th and use passing chords such as min11th and 7b5 etc..