By Ken Volpe
This is Lesson #11 in a series on Guitar Improvisation. Last week in Lesson #10 we started to learn our first licks. I hope that you had fun jamming with your new licks. In this week’s lesson we will continue to work with licks.
Most guitar solos have continuity. One way to create continuity is to have your licks and your chords be happily married. While you were jamming you may have noticed that certain lick(s) worked better with certain chord(s). To get a better understanding of this, we need to know what the notes are in our licks and in our chords.
Let’s start with the chords. The notes are:
A7 = A, C#, E, G
D7 = D, F#, A, C
E7 = E, G#, B, D
Now let’s look at the licks. The notes are:
Lick #1 = A, G, E, D, C, A
Lick #2 = E, G, A, C, C, A
Lick #3 = G, G, E, D, C, A, G, A
Lick #4 = C, D, E, C, A, G, A
Let me give you 2 rules to develop continuity. Rule #1, make sure that the first note of your lick is the root note of the chord. For example, if A7 is the chord, play a lick that starts with an A note. Rule #2, try to end your lick on the note of the key you are in. For example, if you are in A blues, end your lick on an A note. These are basic rules that will keep it simple and help your ear to know the sound of the key you are in. I suggest that you apply either and/or both rules at this stage of the game. As you progress, we will introduce other more advanced concepts.
Let’s get back to matching our licks to chords. For A7, play Lick #1 (both Rules 1 & 2 apply). For D7, play Lick #4 (only Rule #2 applies). For E7, play Lick #2 (both Rules #1 and #2 apply).
After you get comfortable applying these rules to your licks, you can utilize any of the remaining lick(s) with your chord(s). Use you ears and really hear how the notes blend with the chords. Don’t try to play too many notes, hearing it and feeling it are way more important than burning up the fret board.
In next week’s lesson we will continue working with licks. I’ll see you all at the next lesson.
Contact Ken - [email protected]
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