r/LearnGuitar • u/jul3swinf13ld • 6d ago
Finally getting to grips with playing the changes
I been slogging away for a year, trying to play blues and sound musical, but as soon as the backing track is on, it just went back to white man dentist pentatonics. Or when I tried to implement arpeggios, it just didn't sound blues. I tried learning licks, practised the pentatonics on all positions, and did CAGED courses. I wasn't terrible, but it still didn't sound good either.
In the past 2 weeks, I've had my biggest breakthrough in playing the changes over a I–IV–V
Yes, triads are nothing new, but the two adjustments which made the biggest difference to my soloing were focusing on rhythm guitar with triads and, most importantly, shifting focus to rootless triads.
This was my routine for the past 2 weeks"
Focus on two fretboard positions in a key. (G and A I've focused on). A is the best place to start, as we all know A minor pentatonic.
- Warm up with BOTH major and pentatonic in positions 1 & 2 (extend if you have time)
- Start by playing the dominant 7th chords and focus on visualising them. I would recommend using the V chord with the ring finger on the E chord in position
- Practise their major triads, especially on strings 2, 3 and 4.
- Turn those into rootless 7th voicings: keep the 3rd and 5th, and move the root down two frets to the flat 7th.
- Play those voicings rhythmically through the changes until your fingers know where to go.
Then gradually turn the rhythm part into a solo: play just two notes from the rootless voicing with a triplet rhythm, followed by a short pentatonic or scale phrase; end the riff by playing a note with some vibrato and look aim for the nearest chord tone in the next voicing or the next phrase.
A few things that made a big difference were banning myself from playing minor pentatonic on the 1 chord. It took some strength, and it sounds bad at first, but the rootless 7th chord drill took so much focus it allowed me to stick to that.
Other things i'm adding into the practice now: trying to do the above minor triads. eg F# on A and C# on D as well as other positions.
Maybe I'll finally get the hang of diminished scales one day and give that a go.
There is nothing new and revolution here and i'm sure we've all heard these things before, but wanted to share and a few months a go, i thought i was never going to 'get it' and just didn't have the music gene
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u/Jasco-Duende 6d ago
Work on the Howard Roberts Superchops method, but start with easier (blues) chord progressions.
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u/Flynnza 6d ago edited 6d ago
Another practical and musical approach is to sing a line over the song changes, record yourself and transcribe it. You will see how you naturally land on chord tones on strong beats 1-3, because your ear listened and processed a lot of music, learned to predict it, knows how to build tension and resolve it. Turns out, great improvisers always sing in their head, just a spit second before playing it
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK7wQ185qc97C5VitGzizHCS3u3CZJ5vz
You trying to approach the task from mechanical side, this is good exercise, but improvisation and music in general is aural art. Engage your ear via singing.
edit: and transcribe music with analysis how notes relate to the chords. Musicians do not randomly go through chord tomes with hope it sounds good. They play vocabulary which they understand how it relates to the context of the harmony. This vocabulary obtained exactly like kids learn to speak - by mimicking others and figuring out what is appropriate to say in different situations. Use your ear and build own vocabulary.
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u/Dalekmind 6d ago
Just practice where you land. Soloing not not about knowing where to go. Its about knowing the space you have to fill.
Once i define the box of space im working with it defines what I can fit in there.
Try just play what ever and land on an A. Now do it again same space of time different set of notes but land on the A again.
Now build the structor so resolving on A sounds good. Then maybe resolve one of the messures on D.
Doing this you start building phrases that fit in a time box. You will start just using some of these as little fills and linking them together to make longer solos.
Most people that cant solo is because they have no limit so they feel overwhelmed. Start small and work up to fulilling larger spans of time.
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u/jul3swinf13ld 5d ago
Maybe I’m not understanding what you saying or missing something but that sounds very random and like it would ultimately take longer in the long run as it’s so trial and error orientated. Unless there is assumption you know the scale well.
But in that case it’s counterintuitive as with the scale it 8 notes. Without it 12 random notes
Which is constantly more than 3 per chord to focus on.
Sorry if I’m confused here. Always keen to learn
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u/5ongwrit3r_1954 4d ago
To play blues solos, it sometimes helps to play the minor pentatonic scale against major chords. Also, I've heard that you have suffer if you want to sing the blues (credit David Bromberg, he wrote a song with that title).
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u/MusicianWide1650 6d ago
In the beginning it’s mostly about having fun and learning songs you like. If doing drills and learning techniques make you happy then go for it.
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u/jul3swinf13ld 6d ago
Strange response. I mean I agree with you , it’s just not in context
This about improvisation. And the specific challenge of playing to changes.
By the way that’s a lovely hat you have
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u/Flynnza 6d ago edited 6d ago
Practical way to develop soloing on changes is a variation of the melody. Instead of trying to invent things, variation of the melody is what helps to be grounded in the music. Also improviser has to have good understanding of the song form - be able to visualize and anticipate upcoming chords. Without this skill trying improvising on changes is futile. Singing melody zillion times while following changes with finger on the sheet music is a good starting point. Composing own solo around song melody is a great way to develop skills.
Also practicing different concepts like scales and arpeggios, rhythms and chord voicings, ear training, fretboard visualization etc on song changes is a good approach.