# Soloing With Chord Tones



## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

This lesson took a long time to finish... but I wanted to provide a good, free lesson on the this topic. Chord tones being called "powerful" is an understatement...it's the secret to world peace! Ok maybe not that far. But close.


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## cboutilier (Jan 12, 2016)

I need to do way more of this


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## Alex (Feb 11, 2006)

Great lesson


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## Swervin55 (Oct 30, 2009)

When you are executing these solo's are you "seeing" major/minor triads on the fretboard or simply notes that you know are the 1, 3 and 5? Hope its not a stupid question. Your execution is enviable. I'm hearing some Gilmour in there....


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Swervin55 said:


> When you are executing these solo's are you "seeing" major/minor triads on the fretboard or simply notes that you know are the 1, 3 and 5? Hope its not a stupid question. Your execution is enviable. I'm hearing some Gilmour in there....


Well both, actually. Triads shapes are great to know but you need to know where 1-3-5 are for each chord in as many ways as possible. It's great practice to play triads on one string in order to get used to finding them fast. 


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

Thanks for making this and posting it. Perfect timing for me as I am just beginning to learn and understand more about this.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Glad you dig it. Also, remember that every single one of these chords come from one key and scale - C Major Scale. I don't recall if I mentioned that in the video. 


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## greco (Jul 15, 2007)

dolphinstreet said:


> Glad you dig it. Also, remember that every single one of these chords come from one key and scale - C Major Scale. I don't recall if I mentioned that in the video.


Thanks

I'd swear that your C major scale sounds better than mine!


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## jdto (Sep 30, 2015)

dolphinstreet said:


> Well both, actually. Triads shapes are great to know but you need to know where 1-3-5 are for each chord in as many ways as possible. It's great practice to play triads on one string in order to get used to finding them fast.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


That's a great piece of advice. I think I've just figured out my practice schedule for this week.


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## Distortion (Sep 16, 2015)

I guess you must have a good grasp on the song harmony to pull this off. Did I count eight cords ?


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Thanks Distortion, I'm just following the chords. The concept is quite simple. The hardest part is coming up with interesting lines.

The chord progression: 

C G Dm F 
Am G Em F


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

Can you use notes from the sus chords as passing tones only to resolve on the 1, 3 or 5th note of the chord? If you did that you can string the melody line out as long as you want to because your not resolving on any of the notes in the triad?


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Any notes are fine as long as you resolve back to a chord tone. Now it's about phrasing too. Rhythm, shape of phrase, how many notes, etc. Chord tones and phrasing go together. A long string of 1/16 notes that happen to end on a chord tone will likely sound awful. 


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## Lola (Nov 16, 2014)

dolphinstreet said:


> Any notes are fine as long as you resolve back to a chord tone. Now it's about phrasing too. Rhythm, shape of phrase, how many notes, etc. Chord tones and phrasing go together. A long string of 1/16 notes that happen to end on a chord tone will likely sound awful.
> 
> 
> Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


Thx for your reply! This is a very unique approach. I need to start doing my homework on all the notes that are involved on the chords.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

It's actually not unique... you maybe didn't realize this is an approach a lot of experienced players use. Still Got The Blues is a good example of a melody that follows those chord tones in a very melodic way.


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## luker0 (Apr 18, 2017)

Yeah this is definitely not unique. I'm working an exercise now that breaks down as follows:
- goal is to land on the third note of a chord on the downbeat (the 1)
- lead in will be an eight note from 5th of chord, followed by the 4th scale note (on the 4 and the and before the downbeat)

This will eventually be expanded to land on the chord 3rd on the 1 and the 5th of the chord of the 3 of a measure. 

So lets take a I-IV-V progression in a 12 bar blues in A. The three chords are A, D and E. So for the bars with an A chord will be played with a target of C# (third note of chord) precedsd by a E and a D. The D chord will be played with a target of F# preceded by an A and G#. And lastly the E chord will be played with a target of G# preceded by an B and an A. 
What about the ROOT you ask? Well, that's the bass player's job. 

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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

luker0 said:


> Yeah this is definitely not unique. I'm working an exercise now that breaks down as follows:
> - goal is to land on the third note of a chord on the downbeat (the 1)
> - lead in will be an eight note from 5th of chord, followed by the 4th scale note (on the 4 and the and before the downbeat)
> 
> ...


Sounds like a good exercise. I'm ROOTing for ya! haha!


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## luker0 (Apr 18, 2017)

dolphinstreet said:


> Sounds like a good exercise. I'm ROOTing for ya! haha!


It is actually a LOT of fun. Starting with A, then moving to other keys like similar other exercises I've done. 

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## Dorian2 (Jun 9, 2015)

I put a lot of likes in this thread. This is yet another practice technique that I have to spend way more time on. I'll have to incorporate more of this in my practice schedule. Thanks particularly on the mention earlier of Rhythm and Phrasing Robert. A player can hit all the chord tones they want, but if they don't make sense rhythmically and in a phrase, it can sound like gibberish. Told my buddy's son just last night that he's at the point in his playing where he's just now starting to piece the words that he speaks on guitar (via the 2 pentatonic positions he knows) into better phrases (sentences). This stuff is like learning a bunch of new words and sentences for the first time. put Don't together it proper will it sound like almost in gibberish end.


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## dolphinstreet (Sep 11, 2006)

Thanks for the feedback! It's certainly worth learning the useful stuff on the fretboard. So many never do that work. Knowledge does not hurt your ability to play!


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