Simple Way to Incorporate Chord Tones Into Your Blues Soloing or Rhythm Playing

"Breaking out of the box ... or boxes - pentatonic scales, minor & major."

An excellent guitarist & teacher once told me that to get inside any song,

simply write down each chord & then each note of all the chords in the song ...

so write each chord in a vertical column & then all the notes of each chord

horizontally starting with A & moving to G ... for example:

If a song is a I IV V blues with a Quick 4 (IV) and 1 6 2 5 (I vi ii V) turnaround in G

G7 ..= B D F G (I chord)

C7..= Bb C E G (IV chord)

G7 ..= B D F G (I chord)

C7..= Bb C E G (IV chord)

G7 ..= B D F G (I chord)

D7 ..= A C D F# (V chord)

C7..= Bb C E G (IV chord)

G7 ..= B D F G (I chord)

Em7 = B D E G (iv chord)

Am7 = A C E G (ii chord)

D7 ..= A C D F# (V chord)

Now, look at each vertical column, ... notice, for example, that you could play a G note

over the entire progression, if you adjust & play an F# note over the D7 (V chord) ...

You could rock back & forth between the C note & D note - adjusting to match the chords

and probably create a very interesting rhythmic or thematic solo - since one or the other or both of those notes are in every chord in the progression.

You can obviously go beyond simply connecting all the notes in any vertical column,

you might mix & match notes from any of the columns to fit the chord being played.

It's helpful as Jay points out in his column to memorize the relationships between chords and to know the underlying arpeggios available to you over those chords, but it's equally, & can be more helpful to chart out the chords/chord tones of the entire progression, then see what connections can be made & create interesting combinations of your own.

Vertical movement up and down a particular string or string sets is a very common, often used, and great sounding way to spice up both your blues rhythm & lead playing.

And best of all, this approach works on EVERY song EVERY time!

Tags: blues, changes, chord, guitar, lesson, progression, rhythm, soloing, tones

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Michael Schaefer on April 12, 2010 at 8:48am

Good stuff Beth. Thanks for sharing with us.

Permalink Reply by Beth Isbell on April 12, 2010 at 10:16am

Thanks Michael ... you can use this method to create simple lines, or complex ones, your choice ... but it always works! :),

Michael Schaefer said: