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Soloing Practice

Steve has me progressing rapidly through chords. In 5 lessons, we’ve goton to mappeing out all CAGED chords across the neck. Majors, minors, dominants and now major sevenths. For each chord type, I have to play a song utilizing those chords in all 5 positions across the neck.

So for majors, I would play “Louie Louie” starting in G on the 3rd fret (E Form) and find the closest C and D forms. Those are C major in A form and D major in C form. Then play it again up the neck with the D form of G major from the 5th fret. This pairs with C major in G form and D major in A form.

This allows me to map the entire fretboard for major chords. Enough repetition, and I should be able to pull off any major chord anywhere on the neck. I can also divide those forms into string triads to better control voice leading.

Minors continued with “Hotel California”. “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out” was for dominant sevents. Now I’m on “My Cherie Amore” to continue the pattern with Major Sevenths.

The other main part of lessons is improvising solos over changes. My first few will be very much centerd on pentatonic scales. Steve has me playing over a five minute backing track of “Ain’t No Sunshine” every day. I had to record myself soloing over the changes, so I might as well share them here too:

On top of those changes for Minor Pentatonics, I’m working on the solo for “Need Your Love So Bad” to apply this to Major pentatonic changes.

The other big news is that Mad Bread will be playing again at the Celtic Knot. They re-opened a store in Evanston. Carl and I armed ourselves with Ted on bass. I’m half on guitar and half on mandolin this time. It will be my first time playing lead guitar on a gig. Andy is also joining us for the first three songs. My first time on stage with my son!

I feel like my time on Mandolin and Fiddle really set me up for this role.

The big challenge is to mesh with Carl and not overplay. I always hear myself fixing mistakes in my solos on the spot. Instead, I should be more prepared for each line and play less notes behind Carl. I’ve been working out a plan for each song. Mostly from the rhythm guitar standpoint. If I have the rhythm part down, it’s easier to generalize a scale on top of it for the lead lines.