What is chord tone soloing?
Well, it is exactly what it sounds like. It is using predominately the notes, that make up the chord you are playing over, in your solo to make melodies. So, if you are playing over a C Major chord: The notes in C Major are - C, E, G. Therefore, if you are soloing, what 3 notes on the neck do you think will likely always sound good?
You got it! C, E, & G!
For you advanced people you would probably say "Well that is just an arpeggio*?" To which I would respond "Yes it is!". I have always maintained, that for actual application, arpeggios are actually far more usable than scale forms to the beginning soloist. But that discussion is for another day!
So how do I use this?
OK, down to the nitty-gritty! Let's say you have the following chord progression:
| C / / / | G / / / | Dmin / / / | C / / / |
Here is the scale form for C Major. The darker circles form the scale pattern.
However, for this chord-tone approach; over the chord C you would want to stress the notes - C. E. G. For the chord G you may want to stress the notes - G, B, D. For the Dmin chord you would want to stress the notes - D, F, A. All these notes reside inside the C major scale.
As the progression passes these notes of the scale should "light up" in your mind. These notes represent home-base for each chord if you will. They will always sound good for the beginning, or more importantly, the ending of your phrases.
Here are the 3 chords in their "lit up" state. The coloured notes are your chord tones for each corresponding chord.
So why wouldn't I just save time and use the C Major scale for all 3?
Sure you can, that is one approach and it is MUCH easier. But herein lies the crux of why most players don't learn this. It takes work to not only learn the scale form; but then learn how each chord within breaks out of the form. It is this "work" that is the gate between many, and the promised land of melody we all seek. If you can do yourself one favour, do this: stop looking for shortcuts! Face the work head-on and you will get there quicker. Take it from the KING of all shortcut lookers. Let me help save you the wasted time. Rant over : )
Consciously changing your notes, with the chords going by underneath, takes a lot of practice to get smooth at. But trust me, you will get better at it, once you begin approaching it this way. The first time you try, you will think "this is WAY too hard" and many will give up. But I urge you, for the good of your playing and for all those that will listen to you, forge onward. It WILL get easier with each passing session.
OK buddy, you got my interested ... now inspire me.
Honestly I could post many examples of famous players doing this for your listening pleasure... but I won't. I will do one better! One of my favourite all-time guitarists, is the masterful David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. Known for his melodic singing-style solos. Over the years, I have had many students eager to learn how to play the way he does. There is one element to David Gilmour's playing that many fail to recognize - he uses chord tones constantly. He is ALWAYS addressing the chords.
The following is an analysis of the first solo in Pink Floyd's classic song 'comfortably numb'. Take a look at how often David hits chord tones in this very cool solo. I have coded the chord tones in colour, with their corresponding chord above. I believe, he views each chord change as almost a key change... with minor pentatonic lines mixed in.
As you can see at a quick glance, there are more coloured notes than non-coloured. This demonstrates the power and melody that chord tones can bring your solos. Actually some of the non coloured notes are the 7th's! So if we extended out the chords by one more note almost all of them would be labeled. (Remember as you look at this, when you bend a note, it is now a new note regardless of the fret number - a full bend is the note 2 frets higher and a half bend in the note one fret higher. )
For an up close video of the both solos in the song, click here to see this post
Is it the only way to solo? Of course not. But it is certainly a skill all advanced guitarists have. As I said in my rant, there truly is no one-size-fits-all solution where music is concerned. Some players do all of this by ear. Many dont realize they are doing it... they just think that note sounds "cool" over that chord. OF COURSE IT DOES YOU FOOL! It is most likely part of that chord.
This approach is not genre specific. Rock, Jazz, Country, you name it. The chord types change but the principle of the approach remains the same. Do yourself a favour and get this skill in your pocket. You will be glad you did.
* from wikipedia: In music, an arpeggio (plural arpeggi or arpeggios, or known as a broken chord) is Italian for broken chord where the notes are played or sung in sequence, one after the other, rather than ringing out simultaneously.
If you think about how chords are all made up of intervals it all comes back full-circle, eh? :) I love how music works like that.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely Mark!
ReplyDeleteThe discovery that to create a diminished chord (for example) I just had to stack up minor 3rds was an epiphany. Can you say arps on the fly!!
From there it really clicked for me that single note lines are really just like layering chords on top of other chords it changed everything about my approach.
Music is a wonderful puzzle that inspires me every day.
Cheque sent ;-)
ReplyDeleteJP
Great post!
ReplyDeleteI HAVE BEEN THINKING IN TERMS OF "SOLOING IN THE CHORD" AND THE CROSS-OVER POINTS FROM ONE CHORD TO THE NEXT. IT IS DIFFICULT, BECAUSE YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THINKING ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE DOING, INSTEAD OF JUST STAYING IN ONE PARTICULAR SCALE SET TO SOLO. BOTH WORK, BUT THE FORMER IS MUCH MORE INTERESTING I THINK. NICE EXPLANATION.
ReplyDeleteYes Terry for sure! I think the key is to spend the time with "soloing in the chord" until less thinking is required. First time I tried this I thought "holy hell this is impossible!" then with practice it becomes much easier. Not overnight but with time.
ReplyDeleteOnce you have the skill then you can let your ears off the leash. This is when the good stuff happens!
Awesome blog! Thank you for using comfortably numb as an example, it helped me see the light big time! I always thought the solo had to do with the Em Pent which it fits inside. I never listened to the chords! duh! Anyhow, while doing my own harmonic analysis of the song I tend to think the first solo Idea is from Dmajor, not A major as the text suggest. The use of the G not and the absense of a G# to nail down the A major sound, implicates D major as the solo's percieved key, at least to my ear. Makes sense also that he uses the D root over the D chord. Also this would leave the A as the 5th. the perfect destination, from a D chord, then back home for a nice resolve before heading over the the G/C sound. At least thats what my ears hear...
ReplyDeleteIt says up there what is printed below. I agree, both of these ideas are fantastic. I just did a big bunch of diminished arpeggios flawlessly, and I always avoided diminished. That was just COOL
ReplyDeleteThe chord tone thing, I was hip to that , but never saw it as that way,,,, I program java, it makes me think of an object oriented kind of illustration of jazz improv. Yes, chord tone works in rock too, or any kind of music. Doesnt matter because those players don't use that approach, they do scales. Chord tone soloing is a jazz thing, because its hard to learn to do and get under your fingers.
How would you best advise me to learn chord tone soloing ? The chalenges are remembering of the chords as they go by, and seeing the arpeggios of chord tones light up. Thats all there is to it. Not so easy.
I would Really like to hear you comments, thanks for any insights like the ones quoted above, thats for Sure.
Mr Theory not so Hot a Player -
Orangeburg, South Carolina
The discovery that to create a diminished chord (for example) I just had to stack up minor 3rds was an epiphany. Can you say arps on the fly!!
From there it really clicked for me that single note lines are really just like layering chords on top of other chords it changed everything about my approach.
No it isn't easy at all! But with practice, like everything, it does get a LOT easier. Before we go into it I would say this is used in rock all the time - by the good players. Sure many of the average bands just use scales etc but the big boys are hip to this... I mean, ya kind of have to be! Otherwise you are just shooting darts.
DeleteThe best way to practice this is with a looper pedal, or band in a box, some device that allows you to program in some changes. Work on hitting each change dead on. Start with arpeggios, ascending and descending. When the chord changes you change your arp without stopping your pattern. So if you are descending on a Cmaj7 chord using eighth notes when the chord changes to say a D7 you should switch to the dominant arpeggio without missing one eighth note... Strive to make it seamless.
This is going to be REALLY tricky at first but stay with it. Start in areas of the neck you really know. Then progress into areas you need some work on.
You can start with quarter notes or even whole notes, just make sure you hit the change. When you get bored, pick some new chords and move on. Make this part of your daily routine and before long you will do this stuff automatically. It is OK that it sounds like an exercise for a bit. It HAS TO. Strive to make music with it, but be patient, it WILL come.
so where the change happens as you are going up or down the arpeggio is random ? could be going up or down , and not necessarily change directions on the change of chord ? like if you are going up Am and the change happens, just keep going up from where you are at from the next note in the new chord ?
ReplyDeletea pointer to a demo track somewhere would be awesome if you know of an example....sounds like thing Paul Gilbert would do.... But I know he said a while back he is just learning chord tone , all his stuff prior was scales. Plus by ear of course, preferably
You should try it many different ways.. But yes a GREAT way to practice this is to continue on up your pattern only altering the notes to fit the next chord. They key to it is learning the awareness. Be AWARE - intimately AWARE that the harmony has changed when the chord changed. You should address this shift... least that is what all the bigs do. Even if they don't realize they did. Chord tones just sound the best as resolve points.
DeleteGilbert uses chord tones all the time.. Just because it sounds like a single note line or scale doesn't mean those notes in his riff aren't chord tones.
As i showed in the post, David Gilmour is a great example of this. Check out other Floyd tunes. Learn the solos then look at how many of them are chord tones. It is like 90%. He is not alone. This is a common common thing amongst pros.
Oh yeah, that's for sure. You pointed out, there is no other way almost, to sound good
ReplyDeleteGilbert and guys at his level are playing chord tone centered phrases all the time just by ear. Its no problem for him, without knowing how to conciusly pick certain tones.... he wrote where since he was from a rock background, that was never his approach, and was at that time getting that skill
Hi Jeremy, I'll be honest as possible, I always under midis from different authors as Stravinsky, The Beatles, etc. I try to do soloing with chord notes of two, three or four notes, I say, I do not understand because it sounds bad on such a score converted to midi with PhotoScore, score it was well written, I do not understand, maybe my VSTS are detuned, I use the nuendo VSTS, the a1, etc and others like b4 to Nanotron meltron or wathever, the only thing is the piano sounds good, you do not know why this happens the notes sound so bad?, my names is carlos
ReplyDeleteHey Carlos, glad to hear you read the post. Honestly I have no idea why you are having those types of issues. Sorry i wish i could assist more. If you are playing over a chord using notes that make up that same chord there is almost no way it can sound "out" ... it will be solidly "in" ... now "in" can be bland if you are always playing in a resolved state... The outside notes provide the spice. The "in" sounds moreso when placed beside a note that is OUT. But I suspect none of this has to do with your issue as you describe it. Sounds like a hardware/software thing... yuck!
DeleteSo do I toss my theory of focusing on scales and replace it with focusing on chord tones and their respective 7ths. (PS thank you for an incredible post)
ReplyDeleteIn a word Yes ... for a bit that is. Scales are important as they are the overall pool of notes you can work with. But depending on what chord of the key you are playing on, you strong points change. If you learn to think of a solo as a chord progression - and approach it as such replacing arpeggios and triads for scale notes. You soloing will have a much more purposeful sound. Like i said above. Listen to David Gilmour. He uses about 90% chord tones in his solos.
DeleteThere is no disadvantage to trying this approach for a while - but do it long enough to get past the early hurdles. It's tough at first. But does bear fruit as you get more familiar with the neck.
Tying chords to scales and then narrowing the focus to chord tones seems to really be a solid place to begin building playing chops.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to burry myself in chord tones for the next few months. When I get comfortable with that I'll see about adding a few notes from the various appropriate scales.
I'm looking forward to growing a set of chops. Thank you for the time and the insight. I'll be back.