Are you soloing over the chords instead of with them?
Most players learn their pentatonic shapes and start firing off notes that technically belong to the key. But there's a difference between notes that fit the key and notes that fit the chord that's playing right now. In this lesson I walk you through a complete four-bar solo over a Bm–G–D–A progression, targeting the chord tones for each bar so your solo actually follows the music underneath it.
In this lesson, you’ll learn:
- How to use a raking technique on the D major chord (rolling your fretting hand to mute each note as you sweep through) so the chord tones pop without blurring together
- Why the highest note in your riff (F# at the 14th fret) and the last note (D) are the two that lock your phrase to the chord underneath
- How to build the A chord riff from a suspended fourth interval, using hammer-ons at the 16th fret and stepping down through the scale pattern
- A play-along copycat section where you hear the solo, then play it yourself, training your ear and timing together
Download the tab so you can follow along with each riff as I break it down.
Then grab the jam track and run through all four bars on your own. The Bm–G–D–A loop gives you plenty of room to hear the chord changes and work on landing on the right notes at the right time.