UD#14 Hot Licks with Chord Notes

Over the past few weeks we’ve been looking at using chord shapes and a fretboard chart to explore music theory: The notes in chords, the difference between major and minor chords and more. Today let’s apply what we learned to soloing. Please go back and review UD #12 & 13 if you find you can’t follow this week’s lesson.

What is soloing?

Soloing is playing a new melody over the chords of a song. When musicians perform  a song together there is often a point in the song when the singer stops singing and someone takes a solo. Sometimes a solo is an improvised melody but often musicians compose their solos, at least partially.

Here’s a solo a simple solo that I composed over the chords to Trouble in Mind, a popular 8 bar blues song.

Here’s the tab too (click the image for printable version):

Where do the notes come from? In this solo I’ve used predominantly notes from the chords in the song. With effects added by: 1) shifting the notes one fret down then back up  2) suspending notes.

1) shifting the notes one fret down then back up

•In bar 1 I use the G and E notes from the C chord. I shift them down one fret then back up to the chord notes.
•In bar 4 I use the F and A notes from the F chord and I shift them down one fret then back up to the chord notes. Same technique in bar 2 and 5.

2) suspending notes

In bar 6 I use the F and D notes from a G7 but first I use two notes held over from the previous bar: G and E. These notes create a kind of tension that resolves to the F and D. This is called a suspension.

NOTE: The last two bars of a blues is called the TURNAROUND. For the turnaround of this song I’ve used a very common blues turnaround riff that works well over the progression C, F, C, G7 (I, IV, I, V)

PRACTICE:

1) Here’s the backing. Please practice playing the solo along with the backing. I play the form through twice. At the end I don’t go to the G7. I finish on the C in the last bar.

2) Please try to compose your own SOLO for Trouble in Mind using the ideas from this week’s lesson. HAVE FUN!

All for now,

Guido

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