Some people say that your ability to jam out solos within a group setting is all determined by your scale knowledge. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Being good at scale shapes can certainly influence your soloing, but that is only the half of it... 




Good guitar solos are often created out of building upon the backing harmony and one of the best melody building exercises is the study and the application of using 2-note chords.

The strength of any melodic idea is always going to be determined by a musicians ability to harmonize a direct link back into the underlying chord changes. In this video, I will demonstrate how to construct diatonic 2-note harmonies within a key to achieve that.

Practicing harmonized 2-note chord ideas will not only help you better connect to the underlying chords, but it will also help you create strong melodic lines that operate in a very smooth way musically.

WATCH THE VIDEO:



CREATE BETTER GUITAR SOLOS:
I want to help you start playing better (more melodic) guitar solos when you get together and jam with your friends, at your place of worship, or within any other group of musicians.

And, to do this, I’m going to introduce you to an excellent diatonic harmony approach that will create quick and highly melodic ideas for use over any major or minor jam-riff that you would need to cover during a get together with other musicians.

For a lot of guitar players the act of getting together and jamming with other musicians is the most fun thing to do, but it can also be quite frustrating because the scale that guitar players know the best tends to be the 5-note pentatonic scale.

The thing is, that since the pentatonic scale only has 5 notes it will often tend to make you feel like you just don’t have enough notes to create a well appointed melody line.

Don't get me wrong, the Pentatonic is a fantastic scale, however in terms of playing smooth well appointed melodic ideas the 5-note Pentatonic scales might leave you with a few gaps in your lead playing.





FINDING BALANCE:
The problem that we often deal with is that when most guitar players try experimenting with the full 7-tone scales, they’ll often feel like there’s "too many" notes.

Organizing the notes well enough to be able to find that “perfect balance,” between playing melodic ideas and getting lost in all the scale tone options can sometimes be difficult.

What we’re going to do in this lesson, is work toward solving this problem by learning a string of diatonic intervals, (all organized laterally on the neck).

We’ll also learn to understand those intervals in a way that they can produce some really nice melody lines over pretty much any diatonic major or minor chord progression.

Once practiced, the next time you get together and jam with a few people, you’ll have a solid approach – an easy method - for inventing all kinds of nice melodic ideas.





GETTING STARTED:
Let’s begin by learning how to organize the practice of these 2-note harmonized ideas based upon both 4th and 3rd guitar strings.

Our first patterns for this study will be built off of the fourth guitar string. These patterns will follow diatonic harmony along the neck, using just two shapes that are grouped differently as we travel across the fingerboard.

These 2-note shapes (dyads) will remain within diatonic harmony, and their layouts will be set upon the neck as follows....


4th String - Major Shape: The Major dyad shape, (based off of the 4th guitar string), will have the two notes sitting a, “Half-Step” apart between the 4th string to the 3rd  string.




4th String - Minor Shape: The Minor shape, (based off of the 4th guitar string), will have the notes spaced a, “Whole-Step,” apart across two strings, (the 4th string to the 3rd).





When we establish these patterns into a diatonic harmony (based off of the 4th guitar string) they flow in sequence one after another like this…


HARMONIZED - IN KEY:
Key of "A Minor" (4th and 3rd guitar strings)



Now that you’ve learned a 2-note diatonic harmony based off of the 4th guitar string, let’s learn another layout of a harmony using patterns based off of the 3rd guitar string.





3rd String - Major Shape: The Major shape, (based off of the 3rd guitar string), will have the two notes vertically aligned between the 3rd string to the 2nd.



3rd String - Minor Shape:   The Minor shape, (when based off of the 3rd guitar string), will have the notes spaced a, “Half-Step,” apart across two strings, (the 3rd string to the 2nd).




When we establish these patterns into a diatonic harmony (based off of the 3rd guitar string) they flow in sequence one after another played like this.


HARMONIZED - IN KEY:
Key of "A Minor" (3rd and 2nd guitar strings)




Now, that you’ve learned a 2-note diatonic harmony based off of the 4th guitar string, and off of the 3rd string, let’s take these linear harmonized 2-note ideas into a typical chord progression so that you can begin practicing them.





PRACTICING 2-NOTE SOLOING:
The easiest way to get yourself ready to play some nice melodic ideas at your next jam session with your friends is to first do some preparation work at home.

This type of preparatory work is best done using jam-tracks. A jam-track will do wonders to help you learn how to phrase good lines and develop continuity across your playing.

This is why I've developed a jam-track for this lesson plan. The chord progression that I have for you is in the key of “A Minor” (the same key as both of our examples that we were just learning).

I’m going to start things off by playing this jam-track for you and then I’ll give you a few example passes across the progression to help you start using these highly effective 2-string diatonic harmony lines.


JAM-TRACK: (Key of "A Minor")





Working with Jam-Track's:

Step 1). Study the chord changes and learn the fingering
Step 2). Develop the rhythmic feel for the chord pattern
Step 3). Record the chord changes using a metronome
Step 4). Practice singing melodic sounds for the progression
Step 5). Compose an idea and embellish it
Step 6). Branch out from your original concept


If you consistently practice playing over jam-tracks over time you'll slowly develop a better and better sense and feel for  melodic phrasing.

After many hours of practice, you'll have a much easier ability to melodically jam on anything that is offered up for soloing at your next band rehearsal. 



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The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.

 
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Learning new chords is not as complicated as some players make it out to be. In fact, it can be boiled down to one thing and that "one thing" is inspiration upon hearing a really interesting harmony from within a song and then learning what chord duplicates the effect...



The first band that sparked a lush /dreamy "chord interest" for me was Pink Floyd.

There was always something about that floating Pink Floyd chord sound that made me a curious guitar player when it came to learning Pink Floyd's lush harmony style.

I know that I wasn't the only one. Millions of guitar players world-wide have said the same thing about Pink Floyd's dreamy chord work, (like the song, "Goodbye Blue Sky").

In this video, I’m going to show you a type of chord that millions of guitar players all around the world have been learning, copying and experimenting with for years. They are called "ADD" chord types and they truly are a very special sound.


WATCH THE VIDEO:




WHAT ARE "ADD" CHORD TYPES:
The "ADD" chord has a very wide /lush sound to it that is so unique you will probably remember the first time that you ever tried to play it. And, once this chord is learned, the "ADD" chords' sound will always stay in your musical thoughts - forever.

These chords offer us a very unique wide interval effect. If you’ve already started trying to use some of these chord types, you’ll probably already know them by the name of, “add 2” or perhaps, “add4,” or even, “add11.”

These "ADD" chord types are very inviting because they are really cool sounding, (which is why millions of players all over the planet love to use them when they want that dreamy floating sound).

The interval effect found within this chord creates a lot of distance between the tones. And, it produces a highly unique sound in music. This ends up making these chords come across as sounding really dreamy to use in almost any situation where this type of sound color and effect is wanted.





"BASIC" CHORD THEORY:
In getting started, let’s learn some music theory behind what makes these chords sound so interesting.

Anytime that you see the word “add” notated next to a chord name, it means that we’re adding in one additional “outer” interval.

By this, I mean adding in another note from the key that is not related to the basic chord tone construction based off of the root note.

Keep in mind, that when you construct a chord in music, it’s normal series of chord tones will always travel in 3rd intervals, (1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13).

NOTE:  The "9, 11 and 13" are really the key's, "2, 4 and 6."


Basic Chord Construction:
For example, if my root note was a “C,” then the next basic chord tone would move up 3 notes to an “E.”

 Travel up a "third" from "C" to "E"


If we then go up 3 more tones from there, to a note of “G,” that would complete the chord as a basic, “C Major” triad chord.


This is the method for constructing “basic” chord structure is called the; 1, 3, 5 because it uses the first, third and fifth tones of the key signature to construct the keys primary chord.



"ADD" CHORD THEORY:
Next, let’s clarify a little more about chord structure. So far I’ve explained that in our “C Major” chord we had notes getting stacked on top of each other as 3rd intervals.

That’s the standard approach for constructing chords. But, if we were to go and construct a different chord structure, let’s say perhaps for an “Add” chord type, we would need to “add on” a unique scale tone within the original notes of the chord.

If I added another note to our “C” chord, (like let’s say perhaps a “D”), then we’d have a note other than the 1, 3, 5 structure.




What’s nice is that this means that we get to keep the chord quality of the chord, whether it’s Major or Minor, (in this case it’s Major).

However, we are “adding” on another scale note of the key with that “1, 3, 5” structure. In this case the added note is the second note away from our root note of “C” making this chord a “Cadd2” (1, 3, 5, 2).

Plus, also remember that since our original chord was Major, this chord would also be Major as well.



Now that we’ve got the general music theory out of the way, let’s learn some of these shapes and find out why millions of guitar players across this planet absolutely love these chord types…





"ADD 2" CHORD SHAPES:
Here’s our first shape. This one is an open position “Am add2.” It looks like this…



Our next chord is another open position Minor (add2), this time the shape is based off of the 6th string “E,” for an “E minor add2.”



Next, let’s switch over to Major and convert those “A and E” Minor chords to Major. First, here’s an “A major add2,” in the open position…



And, finally here’s the Major version of the “E” chord. It’s an “E major add2.”



"ADD 4" and "ADD11" CHORD SHAPES:
The next shapes that I have for you are going to be the chord types of the, “add4,” and the, “add11.”

IMPORTANT: Both of these chords add on the fourth tone of the key. But, the 11th will only be indicated if the 7th chord tone is present.

Let’s try learning some of these add4 and add11 chords. The first shape is the “Dadd4.” This chord is actually a Major chord type with the 4th interval added. It offers a really nice dreamy sound…

The next shape is a very similar layout but it is constructed from off of the 6th guitar string, it is called the, “A dominant 7th add11.”


Next, I’ve got a “G dominant 7th add11.” The fingering is a little challenging, but it really sounds great for this chord type’s dreamy effect. Plus, you can also experiment with moving it around the neck laterally for additional sounds as well.


Finally, I’ve got an “E major 7 add11.” This one’s fully moveable anywhere on the neck!



Now, that you have a group of these interesting add2 and add4 as well as, add11 shapes to try, the final idea I’d like to leave you with is the principle of putting them to use.




APPLICATION:
For the most part, this stage of practice is all about experimentation. 

You can try composing progressions with the shapes we’ve covered, or you can try moving them all over the fingerboard and work toward discovering ways that will be interesting to you.

The end goal would be about making these chords work across all kinds of musical compositions. As an example for you to hear, I made up a simple progression that you can start working on right away.

Jam Progression:




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If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.

 
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There are metronome workouts that help with technique and speed - then there's metronome workouts that help with musicianship. In this video, I show what happens when I get my students to follow the “Merge Drill” for as little as 2 weeks. This unique blending exercise helps develop; rhythm, technique, speed PLUS musicianship - all at the same time...




The Merge exercise has a focus on the seamless blending of different musical ideas (rhythms and harmony), with the end result of gaining higher skills for patterns, for playing technique and for musical ability.

Given that we are generally working with a metronome in most cases anyway, this exercise follows a skill path the merges everything from blended rhythm styles to scale and arpeggio tonalities. Plus, the Merge drill will work great when blending a sequence of chord changes.

Whats the catch? None, you really can hit all of these skill areas with just one study, (after all who doesn't enjoy saving time while gaining more skill).

In fact, after just 2 weeks of doing the Merge routine you'll start to notice an even better ability to play everything from rhythm to chord patterns, plus you'll feel better about your technical proficiency and single string work as well.

WATCH THE VIDEO:




WHAT IS THE "MERGE" EXERCISE?:
I’m going to show you a great exercise that will very quickly help you to get up to 10x better in several playing areas.

Whether it’s; rhythm, chords, arpeggios or scales, this exercise WORKS FAST to modify your playing and make huge differences to your level of skill.

I can’t take full credit for this exercise because the idea surrounding it was first taught to me back in the early 1990’s by one of my guitar instructors.

His name is Ed Finn, (at the time he was an instructor for GIT at the Musicians Institute in California, but I believe these days he’s living out in the Sunshine state of Florida).

A big debt of thanks goes out to Ed because to this day, I still show his exercise to my students!




Why? Because it works so effectively to help a student improve both their groove along with their feel for timing and their comprehension of  beat structure, as well as, tonality and harmony. Yeah, it covers a lot.

Over the years I’ve come to nickname this workout as the “Merge” exercise because of what the exercise actually does. It's highly effective at working in a way to help merge together several musical ideas. But, it’s all done in a gradual - continuous way against a controlled meter of time.

All of this is accomplished by using either a drum-machine, a drum loop, or a metronome... For example, we can take a riff and play that riff against a drum loop that’s operating in straight-time. Then, after a set period of jamming on it we keep the same riff, but switch over to a shuffle beat and hold the tempo of the part.

It might sound fairly easy, but doing smoothly it across a loop track as it shifts through the change in rhythm, can be a challenge. And, many other Merge Exercises follow the same premise. They "Blend" together multiple directions of playing to promote thinking fast on your feet. It helps with quick recall and fast reaction time to material.





RHYTHM "MERGE" EXERCISE:
Let’s begin by trying a rhythm MERGE exercise. We’ll take a riff, start off in strait-time feel then, we’ll play the riff 4 times through. After that, (without breaking our flow), we’ll smoothly (in time), switch over to a loop that applies the Shuffle feel, and continue playing that same riff 4x more but in a shuffle.

Straight-Time to Shuffle Merge:



WATCH THE VIDEO EXAMPLE: 
Rhythm Merge






Expand on the MERGE Exercise:
You can take any mixture of rhythms and blend them using this approach. The results will be the development of a really solid sense of groove and a very high awareness for what it feels like to change the rhythm style across the beat.

Plus, what’s also really cool is that, this MERGE practice idea can additionally function as a fantastic workout for blurring the distinction between Major and Minor scales, as well as, arpeggios.

And, you can even use this exercise for blending together chord changes between all kinds of different chord types.

When you integrate this into your guitar studies, you’ll start to notice that it will have a BIG impact in as little as 2 or 3 weeks time!

How do I know that? Well, because I’ve shown this exercise to hundreds of my own students over the last twenty-plus years of me running Creative Guitar Studio!

When students start implementing this MERGE practice routine, their level of skill will often increase by a factor of as much as 10 times!






THE "SCALES" MERGE EXERCISE:
From the subject of rhythm guitar, let’s next take this idea to scales. I’m going to start by playing ascending through a key of “A” Major scale, based from the 6th string at the 5th fret, and then I’ll descend down through the notes of an “A” Minor scale.

To keep my sense of time, I’ll have a metronome on with the tempo set to 100 b.p.m.

Scales Merge - Up-Major /Down Minor:





WATCH THE VIDEO EXAMPLE: Scale Merge






 "ARPEGGIOS" MERGE EXERCISE:
The next exercise will involve taking a look into arpeggios. We’ll apply the same principles that we used with the scale approach by playing up one quality of arpeggio, and then we’ll descend through the opposite quality.

For our study, we’ll play up an arpeggio of an “A Minor 7”, (at the 5th position from the 6th string root) and then, we’ll go and descend through an “A” Major 7th arpeggio based within the same fret-board region. To make the exercise more interesting, we'll apply eighthnote triplets.

Arpeggio Merge - Up-Major /Down Minor:



Note: You can turn the pattern around using any way you see fit. Watch the video example of how I decided to turn around this drill.


WATCH THE VIDEO EXAMPLE:  Arpeggio Merge






"CHORD" MERGE EXERCISE:
Our final exercise will deal with chords. In this drill we’ll apply more or less the same practice approach, except our chord patterns will change through a group of four different chords built off of the same root note.

We’ll play through; Emaj7, Em7, Emaj9, and E7. All constructed off of the 5th guitar string from the 7th fret root of, “E.”


Chords Merge Exercise (4 Chord Types):




 WATCH THE VIDEO EXAMPLE:  Chord Merge




CONCLUSION:
The various Merge exercises demonstrated here in this video offer guitar players the opportunity to develop their playing skills up to a very high level of skill.

The practice time required to begin seeing noticeable results is low. In approximately 2-weeks time students will start to find that their recall skills, technique and alert response to switch ideas is much quicker.

Over a greater time frame, their results from doing the exercise expands to an even greater level of competence.




• VISIT THE WEBSITE:
If you’d like to learn more about topics like this one and many others, join my members site as a free member and start looking through my, “Guitar Courses.”

I’ve spent over 25 years working with hundreds of guitar students creating thousands of detailed step-by-step guitar lessons for both my website members and my private students.

The result is the most comprehensive guitar course that covers every aspect of beginner to advanced playing ideas to help you improve your playing.

 
• LIMITED TIME OFFER: 
If you join my site as a Premium member, you’ll receive a FREE copy of my popular Guitar Technique eBook.

My Guitar Technique eBook is 28 pages of jam-packed exercises, drills and studies for mastering all of your technical skills at playing Guitar.