Target tones
Aim for chord tones on strong beats so your solo follows the harmony.
Applied
Content under musical review. It may contain inaccuracies.
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Aim for chord tones on strong beats so your solo follows the harmony.
Applied
A target tone is the note you steer a phrase towards, usually a tone of the chord playing at that moment. Land on it on a strong beat and the ear understands that your melody "knows" which chord is underneath. The scale gives you material; target tones give you direction.
Over G7, compare a phrase that ends on the third with one that ends on the fourth:
The first one settles; the second hangs in the air. Neither is "wrong", but only the first describes the chord.
The most telling notes in a seventh chord are the third and the seventh. See where they sit in G7:
String 6, Fret 1: F2 · ♭7 · Seventh
The bass usually covers the root, and the fifth is shared by many chords. The third tells you major or minor; the seventh tells you which kind of seventh chord it is.
Open the arpeggio explorer with this chord and play only its tones in one position. Then mix in scale notes, but always come back to an arpeggio tone on beat 1:
G7 arpeggio Ear & improvisationTarget tonesImprovise over a backing track aiming at a specific tone of each chord.In a progression such as Dm7 – G7 – Cmaj7, the thirds and sevenths form lines that barely move:
| Chord | 3 | 7 |
|---|---|---|
| Dm7 | F | C |
| G7 | B | F |
| Cmaj7 | E | B |
The seventh of one chord falls a semitone, or stays put, to become the third of the next: C drops to B, F drops to E. If your phrases aim at that line, the solo outlines the progression even with no backing.
You don't need to land directly. Surround the target: a semitone above, a semitone below, then the note. Or step down to it from two scale notes above. What matters is that the target falls on the strong beat and the approach notes on the weak ones.
Experienced improvisers often hit the next chord's tone a little early, on the last offbeat of the previous bar. That anticipation gives the line forward motion. Combine this with guide tones on the fretboard and with extensions such as the ninth when the style calls for it.