Chord Tones

Hi everyone. I'm new here, 38 years old, re-learning after putting the guitar down 15 years ago!!

I play blues, concentrating on Clapton / Green / Mayall at the moment.

I know the pentatonic scale and all the various positions and box's etc.

What I am struggling with at the moment is identifying chord tones and target notes when playing solo's. I want to improve my soloing by identifying and learning the target notes to hit on the chord changes to make my solos a little bit more structured.

I've studied the courses on this site, but wondered if anyone had a magic site that pictured the scale patterns and the associated chord tones?

Thanks for any help :-)

Hey & welcome!

Originally Posted by: db3266I know the pentatonic scale and all the various positions and box's etc.

What I am struggling with at the moment is identifying chord tones and target notes when playing solo's. I want to improve my soloing by identifying and learning the target notes to hit on the chord changes to make my solos a little bit more structured.
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I find many people learn the pentatonic boxes, but only as walls of dots to play. They never did the most important thing: visualize the scale degrees. That will help go a long way toward identifying chord tones.

Check these tutorials on pentatonic boxes & the basics of improv, they have lots of fretboard images to help you grasp the application of targeting chord tones in soloing:

Pentatonic Scales: Boxes & Frameworks
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=296

Pentatonic Major Scale Exercise: All 5 Shapes
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=722

Pentatonic Minor Scale Exercise: All 5 Shapes
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185

Introduction To Improvisation For Beginners
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=876

Introduction To Improvisation In A Major Key
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=483

Introduction To Improvisation In A Minor Key -
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=491

The improv tutorials are especially useful in this context because I use the basic pentatonic boxes as a handy visual reference for learning to target chord tones.
[QUOTE=db3266]I've studied the courses on this site, but wondered if anyone had a magic site that pictured the scale patterns and the associated chord tones?

The above tutorials will help you get the visual patterns down. Then you might benefit from these tutorials that work explicitly on targeting chord tones in the context of the blues style:

Major Notes In Minor Pentatonic Series 1
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217

Major Notes In Minor Pentatonic Series 2
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=232

Major Notes In Minor Pentatonic Series 3
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=826

Major Notes In Minor Pentatonic Series 4
http://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=244

Hope this helps. Let me know how it goes. Have fun!

Many thanks!!

I had not found all of these courses on the site.

Originally Posted by: db3266Many thanks!!

You are welcome! You can find all the tutorials any given instructor has done by going to their page. Go to this page:

http://www.guitartricks.com/instructors.php

Then click on any instructor & you will see all their tutorials. Here's mine for example:

http://www.guitartricks.com/instructor.php?input=155014

Hope this helps. If you have other questions you are welcome to ask in my forum:

http://www.guitartricks.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=36

Let me know how learning goes for you. Best of success & have fun! :)

I did a tutorial on the site in regards to Chord Tone soloing. I feel learning that skill will take your soloing a long way. You can check it out at the link below.

Chord Tone Soloing

Saw this post. Douglas- your tutorial took me like a rocketship to another dimension. I was so stuck in scales and modes in a rut so deep, I had dark blues and your chord tones tutorial has made a puzzle assemble itself in my head and my fingers. I can play on any song I want and not thrash around and hit a bunch of wrong notes like a bull in a china shop. I would play faster to escape the bad sounds but hit more on the escape. Now it all fits. To the guy who originally posted- I was there- now I am here- do the chord tone soloing tutorial and then pick any three songs by your faves- play the chords in any position to find the shapes and tones- then jam with just those notes to the tune. You will explode!
It is the chord positions themselves. Check Andy G's tutorial on inversions in the country section to really see what Im talking about. That should seal the deal for magic formulas!

I am so happy to read things like this. The Chord Tone concept is something that in it's essence is pretty simple. However, as guitarists it can be tricky for us to play very contained as it both a habit and encouraged for us to play loud and fast. Glad this concept really helped you. Below is a link to a great book on this idea as well.

Chord Tone Soloing