Improv over D A G

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A major key has 3 major chords, 3 minor chords, and 1 diminished chord so you basically need to decide what function each of your major chords will have before you can decide what scale to play over each chord (or over the whole chord progression).

One option is to look at every chord as a new key however when you lay out all possible options for each chord, you’ll see that one key, D major in this case, contains all 3 of your chords and is therefore the safest key to work with. It isn’t necessarily the most creative but definitely the safest and easiest on the ears. You wouldn’t be incorrect if you chose to use any of these chords as a modulation to another key as that is also a possibility. As the composer of your song, you can take whatever path you prefer. If you’re not the composer however and you are simply trying to understand how the original composer intended it to be played, the extra effort to understand all options is necessary as you may wish to play a song or passage as it was intended to be played.

As far as improvisation goes, you can play the D major pentatonic over all three and it will give you plenty of safe notes to play with. However you can also alternate between the G major pentatonic over the G and the A major pentatonic over the A and you wouldn’t be incorrect to do so.

It’s your choice and it really depends on where you want the music to go. If you are playing with another instrument however (ie rhythm guitar or bass) and they also have the freedom to improvise a little, it’s important that you’re all on the same page so that you’re all playing in the same key. In fact, as long as you’re all in synch, you can move the chord progression up or down a half step (or as far as you’d like) and it will still sound good because it will sound intentional. 😎👍