In the first lesson we covered Bm and G. Now we're finishing the job — D major and A major, riffs that connect back to the same chord shapes and tie the whole four-bar progression together.
We'll also do a play-along at the end so you can start putting it together by ear.
Same tab and jam track as before if you need them:
You've now got a complete four-bar solo built entirely around the chords — not just scale patterns thrown at a progression and hoping for the best.
That's the idea at the heart of the full Following the Chords course. We go a lot deeper into the why behind all of it — the theory, the shapes, how to apply this to any progression you encounter. If what you heard in these two lessons clicked for you, the course is where it goes from "interesting concept" to something you actually own.
Hi. Nice video, but way beyond me… as yet.
I’ve spent the past month practising Maj and Min chords, up and down the kneck for an hour a day. Boy, does practise make perfect or not? I’m about to learn the Pentatonic scale, and I’m wondering where to go next? I played the piano in my youth, so reading music etc. isn’t a problem for me.
Any advice on lessons regarding putting my ‘scaleability’ to use, would be most welcome.
Thank you.
Regards, Derek.
Hi Derek, I know sometimes it seems like the goal is a long ways off, but I can assure you practicing does pay off in the end! 🙂
Regarding scales – learning that pentatonic scale is indeed an excellent start. Learn how the pattern works, and how to move it around into different keys, and get familiar with it with your fingers – that’s huge. From there, start learning some pentatonic riffs, and ideally, find a jam track to start working with. I’ve got a free one here:
https://courses.playguitar.com/blues-jam-track/
At this point, just start getting used to how that scale and the riffs sound at different parts of the song – technically you can play any of those notes in the pentatonic scale over any part of the song and it won’t sound bad, so that’s a great start!
From there, it becomes all about building on that foundation. More riffs, more scale patterns. Somewhere in this phase you’ll probably become interested in the kind of stuff I was talking about in the video on this page, where you begin targeting your riffs more precisely to specific chords.
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
Because of the difficulty of learning the solo and trying to play in time, I find myself losing sight of what chord is being played in the jam track at any particular moment. Is there any way of displaying the name of the chord while the jam track is playing? Come to think of it, I think I could get that by putting the jam track into Song Surgeon.
Hi Melvin, I see what you’re saying. In the Following The Chords course, there is a video of the jam track, and the video shows the chord changes happening on screen.
Ha! I see what you did there! Nice tempter!