I’m guessing I should have known that!! I don’t know the names of the notes for the various chords as can’t recall Justin saying that we should know these as part of the beginners courses. Perhaps he should have. Would have saved me the embarrassment.
Its more about timing and feel than what notes you are playing
You could play 1 note well and make it sound a lot more musical than randomly plucking all the notes of a scale
I would try the 1 finger/1 string technique first over a backing track or loop and make sure you have timing down well, then expand to working on motif’s etc. These dont have to be big 2,3 4 note repetitions you can then explore from and come back too
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No need to be embarrassed. I think it is covered in the early parts of PMT, its been a while.
To keep it simple each major chord contains just 3 notes Root Third and Fifth, when played on more than three strings, Open E Major for example, some of those three notes are duplicated but in a higher octave. Same with the Open minor chords Root Flat Third and Fifth,
Open E from E string to e string
E-B-E-G#-B-E
Six strings, 3 notes
Same applies to Barre chords. Try working that out for the other open chords.
Things get more complicated with extended chords 7th eyc but no need to go there yet.
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Have been doing that, although assume that you mean the same 1 note repeating. Also being doing 2 notes/string.
Motif’s?? What do you mean by that?
As an add on to this if I was to play simple phrases over a one-chord vamp is there particular strings/notes that I should use for each of the A7, D7 and E7 chords. It’s all still a mystery to me as the implication is the each of the A7, D7 and E7 BT chords have certain notes to use when improvising!
@Stuartw Stuart, thought I’d share this with you, maybe as an example of what some folk have been suggesting. And explain it in my words whyich may help: One Chord Vamps - #19 by DavidP And maybe you want to try record something top share in that challenge, get some feedback.
I was improvising over a single chord viz Am, and the strumming patters were the same start to finish.
The notes that make up an Am chord are A C E. I know it has been suggested to just use your ears but I think knowing and making use of just a little bit of chord theory can be helpful.
My improv was mostly in minor pentatonic position 1, which is what Justin teaches first. Before improvising I’d suggest being comfortable with that first minor pentatonic pattern. Work on playing it ascending and descending.
Then people have spoken about ‘targetting chord tones’. What that simply means is that you should start and finish on one of the notes that make up the chord ie an A C or E when you play a few notes. So useful to know where those notes are on the neck in the A minor pentatonic position 1. Just try playing a few notes from the scale and then pause, trying to start and finish on the A C or E. For example you could start playing quarter notes on the beat. Just try A C D C A on the D and G strings. Let the second A ring out for a full count of 4 and repeat. It is not the most creative but should sound musical.
Hope that makes some sense, not adding confusion. Just my way of thinking about it.
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Thanks or your help with this.
I’m OK with the A minor pentatonic .
OK that makes sense and can see what you are tying to do with A C D C A on the D and G strings.
It helps but also adds some additional confusion based your comments about "The notes that make up an Am chord are A C E. ". I get this but based on this @Richard_close2u response above this adds the confusion.
As far as I know the notes of the chords are:
A7 - A, C# and E.
D7 - D, F# and A
E7 - E, G# and B.
How does this work as not all the notes from A7, D7 and E 7 are in the A minor pentatonic scale?
No wonder I’m not getting this one chord vamp thing or even improvising in general. I didn’t realise it would be that difficult. 
Dominant seventh chords (“7” chords for short) are 4-note chords that have the flat seventh (b7) degree of the major scale in them. Those 3 chords have the following notes:
A7: A, C#, E (so far an A major chord) and G (one tone below the root note - remember, it’s a b7)
D7: D, F#, A, C
E7: E, G#, B, D
You are right that not all of those notes are in the A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G). However, all 5 notes of the A minor pentatonic scale can be found in those 3 chords (see them highlighted). Therefore, playing the notes of this scale will sound good over those chords as you are sure to play a note that they contain.
Footnote (not necessary for the exercise above): write out the diatonic triads of a given key, e.g. C major, and add the next third to them (from the same key where the triads come from). The 4th note added then needs to be examined in relation to the root note of the triad. You will find that the V chord (and only that one) becomes a dominant 7th chord. See below:
C: C E G becomes C E G B - Cmaj7 (major triad + seventh relative to key of C)
Dm: D F A becomes D F A C - Dmin7 (minor triad + flat seventh relative to key of D)
Em: E G B becomes E G B D - Emin7 (minor triad + flat seventh relative to key of E)
F: F A C becomes F A C E - Fmaj7 (major triad + seventh relative to key of F)
G: G B D becomes G B D F - G7 (major triad + flat seventh relative to key of G)
Am: A C E becomes A C E G - Amin7 (minor triad + flat seventh relative to key of A)
Bdim: B D F becomes B D F A - Bmin7b5 (diminished triad + flat seventh relative to key of B)
All these extended chords are diatonic to the key of C major because they contain only natural notes.
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A repeating phrase, dosnt have to be long or complicated , or even over used, but endless random notes dont work
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As I recall the conversation above developed from talk about minor pentatonic scale and playing over 12 bar blues. So it was taking steps up in what is involved from teh simplest (I think) which is the one chord vamp.
As I recall you have not delved into music theory. I forget if you have done the first few free lessons of Justin’s Practical Music Theory.
So with that in mind, I shan’t go into music theory but will just say that both A, A7, Am are chords with the root note being A. They are different chords, so made up of different notes.
My suggestion is to forget about 12 bar blues played with A7, D7, E7 for now.
Keep it as simple as possible ie Am and use the A minor pentatonic. Just accept that the notes that make up the Am chord are A C E. Look at a notes-on-the-neck diagram and see what the notes are in the A minor pentatonic. Highlight where the A C E notes are.
I don’t know if you can record yourself. If you can maybe just do so playing an Am chord over a metronome set in 4/4 time at say 80 BPM. Just a simple pattern, even just 4 down strums on the beat.
Then play patterns of 5 notes on the beat like this 1 2 3 4 A C D C A 2 3 4 A C D C A 2 3 4.
Forget about everything else you’ve read, banish all the questions from your mind that introduce additional theory etc.
Just start with that. See how it sounds and feels.
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GOOD. That sounds like the way to go.
This can work. Toby shared a backing, I shared four.
Did you give it a go?
If yes, how was it?
FORGET CHORD TONES. DO NOT THINK ABOUT IT AT ALL.
That sort of path at the moment will prevent you from being able to play.
JUST PLAY.
Play a BT (one chord or 3-chord 12-bar blues in A. Play short phrases using A minor pentatonic. D, G, B & E strings only. Frets 5-7, 5-7, 5-8, 5-8. Just eight notes to use.
The example I created above is an example of motifs. The shape, the rhythm, the feel, the groove of them is the same. Slide to a first note, it lasts half a bar. Play two more notes that last a quarter beat. Variation only comes occasionally and is achieved by sliding to a different first note and / or playing two different notes after.
Try to play in a similar way. 3, 4 or 5 notes. Not as scale notes, starting low pitch and ascending. Not starting high pitch and simply descending. Take the notes for walk up, down, back a bit. Hold one note longer, or shorter so you have some varying rhythm - again making it sound that it is not scale practice with evenly spaced notes.
Yes. Do that. Do exactly that.
Forget it about then. You do not want confusion adding to confusion.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
You are correct to notice a mis-match between the minor pentatonic scale notes and the chord notes. FORGET ABOUT CHORD TONES.
Play the minor pentatonic and just put to one side any notion of playing the chord changes and targeting chord tones. It is an advanced concept and you need simplicity at this stage.
YES YES YES.
All the advice and examples have been provided to help you. But I recommend you strip it back to the bare essentials.
1] A minor pentatonic with one-chord backing tracks of A7, D7, E7
2] A minor pentatonic with 12-bar blues backing tracks in A major using A7, D7 and E7 only.
A7] https://youtu.be/nzbYs1pJU9o?si=mWgUXJA48j9bzg2B
A7] https://youtu.be/l_ZKOgZnvJo?si=-KR0NsTL0Rehr40I
A7] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzbYs1pJU9o
D7] https://youtu.be/38IyuMZgQBI?si=_f7kxkkrtVCrLQGj
E7] https://youtu.be/qptV3pi-XfQ?si=1txPUOSNHXzA1Lmx
Avoid jazzed up backing tracks that make use of more fancy chords. Keep it simple.
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Shane, thanks again for this sage advice, definitely a turning point on my musical journey!
Quick question for you. I’m finishing grade 3 in Justin’s course and the module about playing in key. He teaches playing all the notes in the scale, you recommend playing the three notes of the triad. They both sound great. Any advantage of doing one over the other?
Thanks
Roch
Hey Roch,
They do both sound good.
One is key-based playing; the other, chord-based playing. The latter is harder to do.
In reality, you will often use a combination of both in any one piece.
The way I currently look at; chord based playing on/near the chord changes ( via triads, arpeggios, chord-tone targeting etc), and key/scale notes surrounding to create movement from one chord to the next.
Cheers, Shane
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I will digest that, more good advice, thanks!
I’ve done up to module 3 but it was a long time ago and have probably forgotten more than I can remember.
That’s easy enough. No real problems with that.
Sounds OK, though after the 20th time of doing it the fingers want to explore further or even, dare I say, stick a ‘hammer on’ on the D!!
It went fine. No real issues. It’s knowing where to go next that’s the problem. I can learn these simple licks but no idea how to sue them to sound musical!
OK thanks.
Okay Stuart, I’m joining in the fun.
First I play @DavidP’s little riff but I don’t play it twice as in his suggestion.
I add in your idea of the hammer and follow it with a flick back to C. The hammer is on the ‘and’ after 2, the flick on 3
Then I play G (below A) then A
Then David’s riff again.
So it goes like this:
A C D C A 2 3 4
A CD C G A 2 3 4
A C D C A 2 3 4
And then……your turn to find something for the next line!
How about
A C D C A 2 3 4
A CD C G A 2 3 4
A C D C A 2 3 4
A C D (bend-release) C A 2 3 4
or
A C D C A 2 3 4
A CD C G A 2 3 4
A C D C A 2 3 4
/A 2 C D A 2 3 4
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Yep, they both sound good 
So you CAN improvise and make it sound musical. Just a case of finding an idea and building around it. You’re on your way. Have fun!
Live your best life.