Stop 5 of 5
Phrasing and target notes
Ending phrases on chord tones so the solo speaks with the harmony.
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Stop 5 of 5
Ending phrases on chord tones so the solo speaks with the harmony.
You now have a rich vocabulary: in-tune bends, vibrato, double stops, two pentatonics and the blue note. But a vocabulary isn't a speech. What makes a solo "say something" is where each phrase is going and when it gets there. In this stop you learn to choose a before you play and to land on it right as the chord changes. It's the step from improvising over a scale to improvising with the harmony.
Imagine the chord has just changed to D7. Listen to the chord with two different final notes on top:
Both notes belong to scales you've used in A (the major pentatonic contains both), yet one sounds like home and the other like a clash. The difference isn't the scale but the chord sounding at that instant. F♯ is the third of D7; C♯ clashes with its seventh, C.
Each blues chord has four notes. They are your runways: over that chord they sound stable, and any phrase that ends on them sounds "resolved".
| Chord | 1 | 3 | 5 | ♭7 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A7 | A | C♯ | E | G |
| D7 | D | F♯ | A | C |
| E7 | E | G♯ | B | D |
Let's see where they fall around box 1 (frets 4–8):
String 6, Fret 5: A2 · 1 · Root
String 6, Fret 5: A2 · 5 · Fifth
String 6, Fret 4: G♯2 · 3 · Third
Notice how close they are. The ♭7 of A7 (G, 2nd string, fret 8) drops one fret and becomes the third of D7 (F♯, fret 7). Raise it one fret and it is the third of E7 (G♯, fret 9). Three chords, three neighbouring frets.
Of the four chord tones, the third is the most telling:
That's why, when a melody reaches the third right on the change, the listener hears the chord change in the melody, even without any accompaniment.
Play this minimal line: one note per bar, always the third of the chord being played. Over the backing you'll hear a simple melody that traces the whole harmony:
In a dominant seventh chord, the third and the seventh form a (in A7: C♯ and G). They are the two notes that define the chord, and when moving to the next chord they often shift by just a half step: the G of A7 falls to F♯ (third of D7) and the C♯ falls to C (seventh of D7). A melody that follows those half steps sounds "clever" almost effortlessly. You'll go deeper into these guide tones in The Fretboard Labyrinth.
Now let's make it musical: a phrase that starts in the bar before the change and arrives on the third on beat 1 of the new chord.
The phrase runs through the pentatonic and drops a half step, from G to F♯, right on the change:
Here the third, G♯, isn't in the minor pentatonic. Two ways to get there: fret it (4th string, fret 6), coming from A a half step above, or bend the G up a half step, the bend you learned in the first stop.
Returning to A7, the most eloquent arrival is C♯, reached from C: the ♭3 to 3 gesture you already know, now with a destination.
Notice that all three landings share something: the note before the third is a half step away from it (G → F♯, A → G♯, C → C♯). A chromatic approach, from above or below, makes the landing sound inevitable: the ear hears the tension of the neighbouring note and feels relief when the chord tone arrives. The practical rule: the approach goes on the weak beat (or the last eighth of the bar) and the target on the strong beat. Swap them and the effect is lost.
is how you organise notes into phrases. The comparison with speech is exact: sentences with a beginning and an end, pauses to breathe, questions waiting for answers.
Three practical principles:
This rhythm, which leaves beat 1 free and lands on beat 1 of the next bar, is the structure of almost every example above. Here it is as a call and response:
The end of a phrase is what the listener remembers. A strong ending combines three things:
This original closing lick runs down box 1 in triplets, passes through the third and ends on the root with vibrato. Use it in bars 11–12 or to close your last chorus:
Play the line of thirds (one note per bar) over the backing. Once you have it, add one approach note before each third, a half step above or below, on beat 4 of the previous bar.
Goal: Play the line of thirds for two choruses without a single late change, first reading and then from memory.
Record yourself if you can and listen back: can you hear the chord changes in your melody?
Goal: Three improvised choruses in two-bar phrases separated by silence, landing on the 3rd in bars 5, 9 and 11.
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