[soloing] hi! In this lesson we're talking about
five levels of soloing we'll start with the pentatonic scale then add two tones to get
the full scale then we'll focus on targeting Triad tones using phrases then targeting 7th
and 9th and finally we'll end with chromatic movement. There are many approaches to soloing
but I thought these five levels would give you some interesting insights and fun things
to practice... which reminds me I made a website just for this video! I recommend pausing after
each section to get familiar with the concepts and have some fun practicing to a jam track.
Check it out at scottpauljohnson.com/5levels in my video called the pentatonic scale
I explained how you can use your first finger to play a minor pentatonic scale [example] and
your pinky to play A major pentatonic scale [example] this is the first way many people
learn how to solo- to find the correct pentatonic scale for a given song and noodle around. What
makes a scale the correct one to use is that the key of the scale matches the key of the
song. In other words if the song is in the key of C major play a C major pentatonic scale [example]
or if it's in the key of F sharp minor play an F sharp minor pentatonic scale [example] If you want to apply this concept to the whole
fingerboard my video "How to use the CAGED system to play a solo" shows a network of pentatonic
positions in the same key all over the fingerboard. This is what pentatonic soloing looks and
sounds like [short example] The weird thing about pentatonic scales is that they're a
skeleton of a full major or minor scale. As the name suggests a PENTAtonic scale has only
five tones but a full major or minor scale has seven. Here's an E minor pentatonic scale and here are the two missing notes needed
to make it a full E minor scale these seven note scales are the ones we used
to create chords in a key. You might be asking "why don't we use them on guitar?" well we do
it's just that the pentatonic scales tend to stay in position. What does staying in position
mean? It means that your hand can hang out in one place on the neck with each finger
assigned to a specific fret. With full major or minor scales those added notes are often
out of position. This means your hand might need to move around a little more to find
those notes which can add a layer of difficulty. Let's hear what it sounds like to solo what
these two notes included [short example] It usually sounds great to include these extra notes
but sometimes it can sound wonky and this is where we run into the most important concept
and biggest hurdle of soloing and that is targeting or accenting chord tones. When you're
in a key like the key of C [just for example] or the key of B minor [another example] full scale is used to create a set of chords.
When we use notes from a chosen scale to build a chord progression we're playing chords in
a key. A chord progression like Em D C D is in the key of E minor because each chord
only uses notes from an E minor scale. We can't include a chord like B-flat major
because even though D is in the scale the B flat and F that make up a B flat major chord
are not in the scale so that chord is not in the key of E minor. Here's a Jam track in
E Minor that uses this Em, D, C, D chord progression. See how the purple notes of the
chords never go outside the green notes of the E minor scale? That means the chord progression
is in the key of E minor. So how do we solo over this? Well this kind of thing requires
a lot more practice but the more you practice the easier it gets to hear the changes and
focus on chord tones. Think of it like this: 1. Always start on a chord tone. So here's
a chord tone here's a chord tone here's a chord tone here's a chord tone. 2. If you
move through the scale, keep going until you arrive on another chord tone so something
like that or or even There you go. I started on E, I ended on G. 3.
If you want to skip notes, only skip to another chord tone. So if I'm starting on E here I
can jump to B and then I could walk to another note so I go there we go or if I start on
B here I could jump down to E or I could jump down and then walk up [example] there we go
that's the idea. Keep in mind the chord tone you choose must be from the chord happening
at the moment. You don't want to accent the notes in the E minor chord while the D chord
is playing and you don't want to accent the notes in the D chord while the C chord is
playing. On the website I mentioned earlier you'll find some jam tracks to help you practice
making phrases over single chords like I just did before you try it over the jam track with
three chords. Keep in mind that this kind of thing takes a lot more practice than just
playing a scale over a jam track so don't beat yourself up if you find it really difficult.
Here's what it sounds like to really focus on and accent chord tones while you're playing
a solo [short example] Sevenths and especially extensions are often
associated with jazz but you'll find people doing this kind of thing in every genre of
music, but what are sevenths and extensions? To put it very simply, they are extra nodes you
can add to a chord to spice it up. You've got 7ths, 9ths, 11th and 13ths. In this section
I'll only focus on 7ths and 9ths though. The easiest way to think of sevenths is that
there are always one note DOWN the full scale from the root note of the chord and the ninth
is always the next note HIGHER in the full scale. For example here's an E minor chord
[E G B] the root note is E which means if we go down the scale one note we got D and now
that's the seventh of E minor and if we go up the scale one note (of the scale) that is the ninth of
the chord. When using these notes in your solos you can just follow the previous phrase making
guidelines but include sevenths and ninths as an option when starting and ending your
phrases. An important thing to remember here is that you can play sevenths and ninths in
your solo even if your rhythm musicians are only playing triads, which is what's going
on for my Jam tracks. Let's hear how it sounds to emphasize the sevenths and ninths in a solo.
I'll start out by just playing those notes over the chords so you can get a sense of
how sevenths and ninths sound on top of a triad then I'll move into playing phrases that emphasize
those notes. [short example] Here we are at level 5: chromatic movement. If you're feeling overwhelmed, keep in mind that some of your
favorite artists might not even care about this stuff. Chromatic scales are scales that
include all 12 notes [example] we'll focus on chromatic MOVEMENT though, which
just means we'll be moving in half steps sometimes. Chromatic movement allows us to use all 12
notes available to us while still accenting notes in the chords and prioritizing notes
in the key like we've already been doing. Always start
your chromatic movement from a note in the scale and move chromatically until you reach
another note in the scale from there you can switch to full scale [example]
or pentatonic scale [example] or continue chromatic movement until you reach another note in the
scale [example.] These guidelines can be added on top of the more general phrase making guidelines
from earlier. So, you can start on a chord tone you can jump to another chord tone and then
from there you could move chromatically or you know you can walk through the scale until you get to another chord tone and then
from there [example] you can move chromatically to another chord tone. When soloing you can use chromatic movement
all over the place it often works best moving up in pitch but you can make it work going
down in pitch too. When you combine all these concepts together it gives you an almost endless
amount of fun. When you explore a variety of phrases and add things like sliding bending
and dynamics you've got a whole universe of fun to have [example] if you liked this video feel free to like and subscribe - maybe leave me a comment - and if you really like
this video, I think you might like my online school. At the moment I've got definitely OVER
200 lessons uploaded so far. It's a place for you to not just learn music theory and not
just learn how to apply it to the guitar but also how to use the guitar and music theory
together to create, and express yourself, and if that sounds like you, come check out my
school I think you'll really like it. Anyway thanks for watching and happy practicing. Take
care.
