Playing the Changes

One minor pentatonic scale works over an entire twelve-bar blues. That is why it is taught first, and it is also why so many solos sound like they are ignoring the band.

The alternative is to follow the chords. In a blues in C, the three chords are C7, F7 and G7, and each one contains a note the others do not. The most telling note is the third: E in C7, A in F7, B in G7. Land on the right one as each chord arrives and the solo stops floating above the form and starts describing it.

What makes this advanced is not the theory, which is trivial, but the timing. You have to know the chord is coming before it arrives, so your hand is already going to the right note. That means knowing the form cold, which is why this lesson comes after nine lessons of counting bars.

Start by finding those three notes near each other so the move is small. In one hand position around the fifth fret, all three sit within a couple of strings.

C7

C7 as a compact movable voicing. The third, E, is the note to aim for when this chord arrives.

F7

F7. Its third is A.

G7

G7 — the identical grip to the F7 above, two frets higher. Its third is B.

One target note per chord

E as the C7 goes by, A on the F7, B on the G7. Three notes, one hand position, no scale runs.

e
B
G
D
A
E

--------5-----7-----|
--5-----------------|
--------------------|
--------------------|
--------------------|
--------------------|

This track is a blues in C moving between C, F and G.

First pass: play nothing but those three notes, one per chord, arriving exactly as the chord changes. It is a severe restriction and it will teach you the form faster than anything else in this path.

Second pass: keep landing on those notes on the downbeat of each change, but fill the space between them with whatever you like. That is what playing the changes actually sounds like — pentatonic most of the time, with the right note at the right moment.

A blues in C. One target note per chord, then fill the gaps.