I found it helpful when first using the A minor pentatonic over a 12BB to record my own BT, just a very simple play through using a shuffle rhythm. I stuck to a slow blues ie 4 bars of the A7 to start.
How you make the recording depends on your gear and tech, but could be as simple as recording it with a mobile phone. A good idea to record with a metronome or drum track to aid good timing.
And there are many BTs available in YT if you spend some time searching.
Hope that is the kind of input you were looking for, but perhaps I am misunderstanding?
Not that its a huge deal, but by locking the gp file, the ability to slow the tempo is also locked. Love Guitar Pro 8. I practice with it daily. It helps reinforce staying in time. Wish Justin would put out more stuff as gp’s
Going thru this lesson and Justin says “ we are playing solo over the D chord”. I know we are in the key of A and D is the 4th of the scale but the phrase “ playing over …” baffles me.
Any help is appreciated!
ShastaFan
Hi @Shastafan. Been a while since I watched this video. Usually solos are not played in isolation, they’re played with another guitarist doing chords for rhythm guitar. Or maybe a bass player, if not a rhythm guitar. Or a backing track if you’re by yourself.
So playing over a D chord is literally, the other guitarist is playing D, while a solo is being played.
Technically not quite, at this level yes best play over a loop or backing track; later licks can be played in between strums of the chord or partial chord and bass line picking.
Music has a harmonic structure - in simple terms a chord progression broken down into bars / measures.
When melody is added it then has harmonic and melodic parts.
The way that melody and harmony are described relative to one another is positionally - melody sits above, harmony sits below.
The melodic can be heard on top of the underlying harmonic structure.
In a 12-bar blues the solo / improvisation is the melodic part and the chords are the harmonic part. You are improvising over the A, D and E chords 9in technical language the I, IV and V chords). The chords provide the underlying harmonic structure above which the solo can be played.
I hope that helps.
Cheers
| Richard_close2u | JustinGuitar Official Guide, Approved Teacher & Moderator
I have a problem with string muting. When I play, other strings tend to make noise even though I didn’t pick them. Is it okay if I put my picking hand over the top few strings?
Hi Richard, thanks for posting a track at the top. Could you please make a suggestion to include practice backtracks in the app as well? This seems like a no brainer and a perfect use for the app.
I’ve been practicing with the backing track from Richard–been really fun! I’d like to record my own backing track, though. The solo from this lesson is in the key of “A”. The lesson in the previous module was a standard 12-bar blues progression also in the key of “A” (A7, D7, E7). If I record the progression from the last lesson with this blues solo, will they match?
Hi Ryan,
Here’s my annotated notes from Justin’s lesson. I’ve added the chords in red above each bar. I guess they should really be 7th chords. Hopefully this helps, rather than confuses you!
That’s great…thank you so much! It’s much easier for me to get the timing down if I have a visual cue. Do you know if we can we play any notes in the Am pentatonic scale at any time with this progression…or do the notes have to match the chords. For example, when we are playing the “A” bars are there only certain notes in the scale that should played over them? Or, if we are playing the “D” bars should we only play certain other notes? Anyway, thanks again for the graphic…very helpful!
Well I’m a rank amateur at this, but since everyone else is probably asleep, I’ll have a go at answering! You CAN play any notes from the Am pentatonic scale over a chord progression in the key of A. But playing the root, third and fifth notes from the backing chord being played will sound better. Although if the chords are 7th chords it might get a little more complicated. Hopefully one of the experts will be along shortly to make sense of it all.
Thanks, Richard. After getting the beginner blues riff down (thanks for your backing track on SoundCloud, by the way), “just trying it out” is exactly what I’ve been doing. Have been getting some good sounds, but the question “Am I doing it right?” is always in the back of my mind. In particular, I wonder if I should be using certain notes in the bars of A7, other particular notes in the bars of D7, and other particular notes in the bars of E7. I guess intuitively I just feel that if the chords in the rhythm guitar are changing, so too should the notes I’m playing on the lead! Fun stuff…but quite a learning curve!!
