I thought I'd do a quick demo of the power of knowing the chords to a piece of music ... knowing then inside and out, all over the fretboard. This is the progression I used in the
last fingerstyle lesson I did, in fact it's the very same mp3 of the arpeggiated chord progression.
As you must know by now, when I improvise melody over a piece of music, I don't think scales. I would have very little success creating a solo over anything thinking scales. That's not to say that others wouldn't ... but I wouldn't know where to begin thinking along those lines, especially in a piece like this that introduces a bunch of 'outside chords' into the picture -- chords not int he key of G. Once that happens, you would need to start thinking of different scales for different parts and somehow merging them into melody. Way too hard for my poor old brain. The fact is, though, the chords of the piece have already, by their very nature, selected the strongest melody notes: their chord tones ... the notes that make them up. It doesn't matter how many outside chords come into play if your tracking the music chord by chord, and you can see its tones scattered the length of the fretboard, instead of scale patterns. One way or the other, you need to think of something, and since you need to know the chords anyway, why clutter your brain with a whole other set of patterns? The other fact is that you would wind up weeding out of the 7 scale notes (of whatever scale is in play), the strong notes with which you would want to start and finish your phrases ... chord tones!
This demo is not meant to be an award winning melodic extravaganza! I purposely played
only chord tones so you can hear that they work, they're right, they don't clash with anything, they fit ... I did this so you can see that it is possible to, first of all, see them there for each chord, and that once you can see them there, they can strung into melody that isn't just plucking notes from a chord. In other words, playing just chord tones needn't be boring. Most of the chords used in this have 4 or more chord tones to work with.
I used my index finger to make it a little clearer for you, and also to show that muscle memorized runs and riffs aren't coming into this particular run through. I'm hunting the chord tones down ... seeing them and stringing them together as I go, thinking a little ahead so I know which chord is coming up, hearing the evolving melody in my head, steering it to a pleasant resolve ... listening, steering, listening.
You can take my word for it that all notes played are chord tones ... or you can pick it all apart and see for yourself. If the chord is a plain old major, I use the 1-3-5 of that chord; if it's 7th, the 1-3-5-b7; 9th? 1-3-5-b7-9; minor? 1-b3-5; minor 6? 1-b3-5-6 ... etc. The melodies are simply the result of string those chord tones together ... timing, dynamics, taste also come into it, of course, but the choice of notes is dictated by the 'chord of the moment' ... not the 'blues scale'.
Seeing them there is the trick, and I won't tell you how I do that. My book/DVD
PlaneTalk explains and demonstrates that trick ... it's very simple, but takes a lot of work putting it into practice. Once you digest it, though, you can see the entire fretboard as a chord, and no chord is trickier than any other .... they're all the same, all friendly, all familiar.
If I were playing a proper solo to this, I wouldn't restrict myself to just chord tones ... you'd hear a few--and I do mean a few--non chord tones in amongst it all, adding detail to the picture. They are a piece of cake to see and use once you can see the chord tones ... they are, of course, other scale notes and chromatic scale notes (thinking 'modes' become redundant ... I'm playing all kinds of modes in this without once thinking about them) ... in other words ALL 12 notes become easy to use once you can see the CTs. They can link two CTs together, or add tension if lingered upon, generally embellish and add color to the CT melody that lies at the core of it all.
The progression is:
| G - - - | - - - - |G7 - - - | - - - - | C - - - | - - - - | Cm - - - | Cm6 - - - |
| G - - - | E7 - - - | A7 - - - | D7 - - - | G - - - | Edim - Am7-5 - | G - - - |
I hope this helps you understand the power of knowing your chords! If you know your chords well enough, you know all scales and modes also.
Be sure to check out our Lesson Value Packs... and save yourself a heap of $$$
