Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Target Notes: Land on THESE notes when improvising lead! – EP418

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn which specific notes you should be targeting (and where to find them) when playing lead by using the dominant 7 arpeggio in 2 positions. This makes improvising so much easier and takes a lot of the guesswork out of it.

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

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Comments

  2. Robert K says

    Brian my friend, this looks like it’s helpful and fun but….
    Aaarrgghhh…. Most people, including you, have led me/us to believe that the pentatonic and blues scales are what’s needed to play the blues – not the major scale. Some of these targets are in the 5 boxes but others seem less obvious. Please explain this stuff according to those boxes we know or how it falls outside these boxes? I take awhile to pick up patterns on my own so I’ll take my lumps if there’s something obvious that I’m missing.
    Dyslexics of the world UNTIE!!

    Best to all, Robbie

    • Brian says

      if the minor pentatonic scale is working – just stick with that. The reason you are 1 note that is not in the minor pentatonic scale is because that note is in the MAJOR pentatonic scale… it’s still just the pentatonics… but a different way of looking at them.

      • Robert K says

        Thanks buddy! I’ll just try to move the pentatonic 3 frets and see if I can make more sense of it. I knew that much, I just didn’t think of it. I’ll look at those diagrams that you’ve obviously worked hard on and try a mental overlay of the patterns. I’m sure that last week’s lesson will help a lot of folks with this.
        Thanks again for the quick reply.

      • Mike S says

        Coolest one was where you target the base of the 4 but an octave higher on the G. string. Fun to catch base of the 5 on the B string when we strum the 7th. Please do a lot of call and response targeting.

      • James H says

        Hi Brian,

        This is a great lesson, but I too have spent a lot of time trying to discern whether you are playing in the major pentatonic or minor pentatonic for the solos. You are clear that the “7th” is the flat 7th of the major scale, a note that is on the minor pentatonic scale but not the major pentatonic scale. The 1 and 5 do not differ between the scales, the other landing note that differs is flattening the 3rd for the minor pentatonic. In this lesson, these are distinguished by the 3rd string 7th fret (flat 3rd) or 3rd string 8th fret (3rd of major scale). Both seem to be used as landing notes. With respect to the lesson approach, being clearer on this point would have saved me lots of time, though again this landing note on arpeggios instruction has been very helpful overall. With respect to the correct takeaway, it seems that you are saying (and playing) “whatever sounds good” and that you can mix the major pentatonic with the minor pentatonic. Certainly the pentatonic boxes (in my understanding) are built from the minor pentatonic scale, and. the 3rd of the major scale would not be on the scale to be played.

      • Daniel W says

        Very helpful way to visualize the caged shapes in a 1-4-5 blues progression. The bends are so sweet! As you say, Im learning to sing with my fingers. Great fundamentals for the arpeggios part of course #1.

    • Peter R says

      Hey RK, it seems to me that irrespective of what scale you are using, this lesson is about ending a phrase on a chord tone. So the ending note won’t always be within the (say) minor pentatonic scale, but is always either the 1/ 3/ 5/ or 7 of the current chord. There’s other ways of playing, but this lesson is about ending on a chord tone.

    • Robert K says

      This is a GREAT idea for a lesson. I’m sure a bunch of us have worked hard on the 5 boxes. Licks that run between them to connect 1 to 2 to 3, etc would be fun and helpful. Perhaps a series of mini-lessons?

      And Alan, Bill Edwards, one of the fathers of CAGED came up with he calls “lead patterns” connecting pantatonic scales in his early works called Fretboard Logic. They help with what you’ve just asked for. I’m not wild about sharing the link since somefolks appear to have basically ripped Edwards’ work right down to the diagrams but if you Google “Bill Edwards CAGED lead patterns” and surf around the images of scale diagrams, I’m pretty sure that you can find them without my sharing the actual link

  8. Ira L says

    That’s why the lessons are so good,because they are so basic. You can build on them. If you wanted to jazz it up you can land on the in between notes like a 6th or a 9th, or #5

  14. Rich F says

    Hi Brian,

    I am with Robert K on this. This lesson has confused me, and I am stepping away from it. I think of the minor and major scales as extra notes in pattern 1 of the Minor and Major pentatonics. So, if I ead thinking of B minor/d major pentatonic, I would be using these at fret 7 (for the B minor,/ B minor pentatonic, the fourth box in the first link) and then exactly the same shape for the D minor/d minor pentatonic in the second link. What confused me in your lesson is that starting at the 7th fret you seemed to be going in the direction of the minor scale/minor pentatonic, but you referred to it as the major scale?

    https://www.guitar-chords.org.uk/guitarscales/b-natural-minor-scale.html

    https://images.app.goo.gl/c9g8iyPmpS68tNJb9

    • Brian says

      I’m using the minor pentatonic scale as the scale to play – but showing the chord tones (arpeggio) from the dominant 7 chord. The only reason that the major scale was showed at the beginning of the video was to explain where those chord tones come from. I thought it was important to explain where those 4 notes originally come from to give you the big picture. If the major scale portion is confusing, just ignore it and focus on the target notes by memorizing.

  17. amrit b says

    Hi Brian, this lesson doesn’t have the second part explained. Straight into the slow walk through. It it created this way or I have this problem? The licks are not explained
    Thanks

  18. Raymond P says

    This is a great lesson on how to utilize arpeggios to target which notes to end on. I will use this theory quite often for sure. I particularly enjoy that you numbered the notes instead of their respective letter as it make it so much easier to understand and memorize for future use.

    Thanks so much Brian.

    Ray P.

  19. Malcolm M says

    Great lesson Brian. All these years playing around with the blues and I really haven’t targeted these notes, I knew the arpeggios but I always played hoping my ear would direct me to the right notes sometimes it did but a lot of times it didn’t. This has really given me something to think about and to practice once again thank you Brian

  20. Rich F says

    Thanks Brian for your helpful reply. As you suggested, I will ignore your major scale part at the beginning, and focus on learning the dominant 7 arpeggio and the target notes.

    By the way, in my first message, I meant to say D Major/D Major pentatonic (not minor!) … I love those patterns in the links I sent, with B minor pentatonic /Relative D major pattern 1, and the notes added to make it the full B minor/D major…

    Thanks for another great lesson, Brian!

    • Joseph T says

      Im already 62 years old and only been playing a couple of years so I really don’t feel like my time attempting to learn theory is practicle at my age, but learning a little about chord composition has really made a difference for me. Up until now, I was just focusing on 1 4 5 blues and playing pentatonic scales along with backing tracks. The really cool thing about learning these arpeggios in this manner for me is being able to target the ones, thirds, fives , and sevens that become different with each chord change. Up until now , I was just playing the boxes and changing with the ones. I believe this is going to be the biggest breakthrough for me ! Im really excited to get to work on getting comfortable with it ! You a great at explaining things Brian, Thank you !

  21. Tom D says

    Hi Brian,

    This is a lesson I should have had years ago. Now I am going to experiment with some of the Quist backing tracks. From some of the previous comments, people seem to be confused with the difference between major, minor melodic, minor harmonic, natural minor and the major and minor pentatonic scales. I understand you need to use the major scale to identify the number of the note and this could not be done using the major or minor pentatonic scales. I hope I am on the right track?

  22. Rich F says

    Hi again Brian!

    I have now watched this lesson again, ignoring the part about the major scale, focussing on the arpeggios. What a brilliant lesson! Love it! Light-bulbs exploding everywhere! 😊

    Many thanks!

  23. Paul S says

    This is exactly why I’ve stayed with Brian for 8 years. What a great way to tie it all together. After all these years I’ve never really thought about stop notes in this way. Great lesson Brian. Thanks! Keep in mind that BB King and others crossed from minor to major all the time. He never really thought about it so there is no rule that confines you to minor or major. But the stop notes really help.

  24. Francois M says

    In case it helps anyone, the blues in its easiest form is often played with a minor pentatonic scale on top of dominant chords. This is a blues in B so you play the B minor pentatonic scale throughout the song. The chords are B7, E7, and F#7. Brian made some variations by playing a Bmajor chord (but he hinted at the B7 by playing the flat 7th (A note) a handful of times before the B7 chord) and by playing the E9 instead of the E7. When it came time to play a chord, Brian targeted one of the notes in that chord before playing the chord, which sounds great. In order to do that, in the 5th measure Brian walked down the scale chromatically before playing the E9 in the 6th measure. And, more importantly, when playing the B minor pentatonic over a B or B7 chord you will get a clash between the flat 3rd (D note) in the B minor pentatonic and the major 3rd (D#) in the B or B7 chord. So when Brian is playing the B minor pentatonic scale if he plays the flat 3rd shortly (D note) shortly before it is time to play the B7 chord he either hammered onto the D# or bent the D note a quarter or half step before playing the chord. All this theory gives me the blues.

    • Francois M says

      Of course, all that being said, I am a terrible player and this lesson is just what I needed to sit down with the guitar and play for a while improvising and sound good while doing so. Thank you Brian!

  25. nostril says

    Thanks Brian this a great lesson! I have been playing arpeggios for awhile looking for the outside notes and the target notes.This lesson opened my eyes guess we Southern Boyz think a like.

    Many Thanks

  26. Phil G says

    Brian, I really like using note numbers to explain things. But, I did (almost) get confused when you talked about the target note over the 5 chord. You were calling it “the 5 note”. What you really meant was, “the 5 note of the B scale”, or the 1 note of the 5 chord (F# scale). Right? Also, it was a little confusing in a few places trying to understand if you were talking about a note of the underlying chord, or a note in the B scale.
    Another interesting lesson might be to relate 4 and 5 chord landing notes to note numbers in the 1 chord major, and mixolydian scales.
    Great lesson!

    • houliAK says

      I think you are right Phil. At 19:35ish, Brian said “Target the 5…. when playing the V chord. I broke it down and I think he meant, target the 1 (of the V)……… when playing the V chord. In this case he was targeting the F# (or 1) while playing F#7 (V chord).

  28. David A says

    Hey Brian, this helps connect the dots for me. One suggestion: in the free lesson, play the tune straight (without all the bending). That would help us concentrate on the notes you’re playing before landing on the target note. Then in the advanced video, play it with bends.

  30. Stobes says

    Hi Brian,
    I have been using the minor pentatonic scale to play over a 1 4 5, but have failed to make anything sound melodic or interesting. Recently, however i became aware of target notes and had tasked myself to find them and use them. Then bizzarely your lesson popped up! Fantastic!!
    Another reason to learn this was to improvise a lead over Eric Claptons Old love song. The key is Am with Dm7 and Gsus4/G7. As part of a new band, I have taken on the challenge to try and do this justice. From this lesson material would you therefore pull out the 1 3 5 7 notes for the above chords. My noodling so far have just been on Am pentatonic and the A Aolian mode. I try to run up the neck from Am pent 1 to 5, and right on to the dusty side of the neck on the 17th fret! What advice could you offer as I dont want to learn this verbatim, but put something decent together with my take on it! Also I know I’m never gonnna worry Eric with my ability!!

  33. David B says

    Excellent lesson thank you Brian,

    I’ve been working on arpeggios for a couple of years but really struggled how to use them to get music.
    How did I not see how you’ve done.
    Extremely useful for me.
    Now to play some blues.

  34. David B says

    Excellent lesson thank you Brian,

    I’ve been working on arpeggios for a couple of years but really struggled how to use them to make music.
    How did I not see how you’ve done it here.
    Extremely useful for me.
    Now to play some blues.

    • Mike H says

      As the chords are Dominant 7th chords it would make sense to target the FLATTED 7th notes as they are part of the Dominant 7th arpeggio that Brian is using here. He keeps calling it a 7th but he is actually playing the flatted 7th as you’ve noticed. I’ve made a comment about this below as it is a little confusing if you haven’t quite got your head around the difference between Dominant 7th and Major 7th chords. You’d use the 7th if you were playing over a major 7th chord – 1-3-5-7 and we use the flat 7 when we play over a dominant 7th chord 1-3-5-b7, which is the case here. I hope that’s what you were asking LOL 🙂

  38. Wolcott66 says

    Brian — I think I needed this lesson a long time ago! Maybe it’s just that things are finally falling into place; but this covers a huge hole I did not know how to fill. I go back almost to your beginning lessons online. This totally changes the game for me. I have felt like I can run all over the pentatonic scales, but unable to really create licks and phrases that sound right and mean something. Struggling to know where to land. Now I finally see that I can play the pentatonic scale of the one chord, but complete the phrases by landing on the 1-3 or 7 of the chord I’m playing over. Perhaps NOW I can finally actually create something musical.

  40. Tom D says

    Hi Brian,

    I logged onto YouTube, called up Quist and found a great blues backing track in Am. You can jam along with it easily using the A minor Pentatonis scale and notes A(1), C(3), E(5) and G(7) for Am; D(1), F (3), A(5), C(7) for Dm and E(1), G(3), B(5), D(7) for Em. YouTube then went to another backing track in A minor with two chords : Am and D major. This was great because I could improvise using the A minor Pentatonic scale and the A Dorian scake and I guess I could have used your method in this lesson also. I will have to give it a try.

  41. Tom D says

    Hi Brian,

    I’m sorry, the second half of my comment was incorrect. I was getting mixed up with Evil ways, which is G minor Dorian. The song was a 12 bar blues latin beat in A minor. The reason I thought I was using modes to improvise was because I could use the C major scale, but then the light bulb lit up. It was because A minor was the relative minor of C major. So I could use the A minor Pentatonic and the C major scales. I also tried the A harmonic minor scale and it seemed to also work.

  44. Tom D says

    Hi Brian,

    I finally figured out what I did for all of the minor chords when figuring out what the 1st, 3rd, 5th and 7th notes are. For minor chords you have to determine the relative major chord and then count from the root note of the minor chord. In other words use the natural minor scale. It took me a long time but I finally got there.

  46. Mike H says

    Hi All – Just to reemphasize, when Brian calls out the 7th of the scale he is actually referring to the Flatted 7th, not the actual 7th. Because he is playing dominant 7th chords, not major 7th chords. So think 1, 3, 5, flat 7 when you target the notes or you’ll be training your brain to misidentify the notes. It’s a FLAT 7th

  49. DABEE says

    I got so lost. Then went back to staring at the fretboard. Played the I chord….the IV and then the V and understood the lesson. The bend on the I chord to get the 3rd was confusing at first. The bent note goes up to the 3rd in pitch. Would be cool to get more lessons like this. I am almost dangerous.

  52. Serge T says

    Merci Brian, j’apprécie beaucoup votre enseignement et la qualité du contenu de vos leçons.
    De plus la clarté de vos explication fait, étant francophone, que je comprend très bien votre langage anglais et cela
    comme si vous me parliez en français.

    Vous êtes un professeur superbe!

    Il me fait plaisir de vous recommander à mes amis.

    Vous pouvez traduite avec Google traduction.

  53. Phil D says

    Hi Brian
    Thank you for another great lesson, however I’m a little confused in that the 7th isn’t in the major pentatonic scale. Does this mean you can’t (easily) use the major pentatonic scale (for a major blues progression) if you want to use the 7th ie you can use minor pentatonic scale only?

    A supplementary question about the major pentatonic scale if I may is that it lacks the ‘4’ note, which is counter-intuitive, but I notice noodling around that it doesn’t seem to matter. Any comment?

    Thank you in advance 🙂

    • Phil D says

      To be clear re the 4 note, what I meant is that the root note of the 4 chord would be where you want to land when the IV chord is played (as per your advice in the recent video on starting to improvise), but it ain’t there to use.
      I read on another site (happybluesman.com) that it is best just to use the minor pentatonic in the key of the progression over the IV major chord (or the minor pentatonic relating to the IV chord itself). Do you agree?

  54. Juan A says

    Hello Bryan,
    I find your teaching very helpful. How about the blues scale? I know it has a flat 5; wouldn’t this scale be the link between the minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic?
    Thanks

  55. elerouge says

    I figured that this lesson is to show how to target note of the chord (1-3-5-7) but i often end or target on the chord change (1-4-5); A 1-4-5 blues in B , i target E when i play the 4th chord (E) and also often do that for the 5th chord. I supposed i should used thoses 2 tecniques to sound different and melodic.

    Thxs

  57. Bevan M says

    I just signed up this week and ive learned more in that week than I had in three months at a much more expensive online course – I really wish I’d never payed for that one – The great thing about these lessons is getting to see all the theory in action – its no longer just scales and boxes – we see how to apply all that stuff – I couldn’t be happier – these lessons are what have finally helped me to see all the connections – Thanks you Bryan

  60. Jeff W says

    Absolutely loved this lesson! Without sounding “above my level”, I already know this stuff. However, the way it was presented made the difference to me! That’s a huge testament to Brian’s ability to teach! By saying things like, “you hear the one , or hear the three, even the seven before you play it…you really are singing with your fingers”, or, “all you have to do is go up two frets up the neck…(motioning with his hand in a “this way” movement), in regards to arriving at the IV chord; Brian’s teaching method really resonates with my visual learning style. So kudos to you Brian and please, keep-’em coming! Btw, the entire CAGED Series you most recently did had the same effect! Thank you! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

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