1) Develop a good understanding of the track:

● play the chords for a while to link in, but don’t do any soloing over them yet!

2) Next, pick out single notes from the chords:

● aim for just one note per bar (really!); focus on playing a chord tone (a note derived from
the chord) so you’re always choosing ‘correct’ notes.

3) Milk the minor pentatonic:

● a bluesy backing track in,say, A minor (Am7, Dm7, Em7) will allow you to use the A
minor pentatonic scale over it all, and you won’t sound wrong (creating licks using this
scale allows you to ‘feel’how they need to be phrased, too).

4) Pull out one or two good chord tones over each chord in turn:

● sticking with our Am, Dm, Em blues, most chord tones are to be found in A minor
pentatonic; do this and you’re bedding in a process that will serve you well in situations
that presents you with more tricky, or thought provoking, chord progressions.

5) Find common notes:

● in a progression such as Gmaj7-Emaj7, no single scale will serve you over both chords,
but there are notes that are shared (B is the 3rd of Gmaj7 and the 5th of Emaj7 and so
on). So when soloing over these two chords opt for common denominator notes as
‘target’ notes, and then when more confident, add in notes unique to each chord. Start
with one (or two) good notes for each chord then develop things from there. This is a
very fruitful approach for many players.

6) Learn what the chord changes are and when they are occurring:

● when soloing over a track that’s more complicated than a blues, knowing where you are
is vital, so playing rhythmic chords along to it, is a logical first step. The more you
develop the link and your understanding between chords, chord tones and general
scales, the better a musician you will be.