Sorry, did I yell? Landing on chord tones is the beginning step of a well written solo. When you think about it, landing on the notes of the chord that you are trying to solo over makes a lot of sense. When this was first explained to me I thought to myself, “Why didn't I think of that?” If you're trying to solo over a C Major chord you will land on C, E or G. If you're trying to solo over an A Minor chord you will land on A, C or E.

Major chords are built from the First, Third and Fifth degree (note) of a Major scale. The C Major scale is spelled C D E F G A B C. The First, Third and Fifth degrees in C Major are C, E and G. These notes are your chord tones which you should practice landing on while playing over a C Major chord.

Minor chords are built from the First, flat Third and Fifth of a Major scale. When a note is flattened you move it down a ½ step (one fret). The A Major scale is Spelled A B C# D E F# G# A. The First, flat Third and Fifth degrees in A Major are A, C and E. These notes are your chord tones which you should practice landing on while playing over an A Minor chord.

There are other notes you can land on that are an extension of the chord. B would be the Seventh degree for C Major and G would be the flat Seventh degree for A Minor. Neither of them are in the chord but they work because the 7th degree would be the next chord tone beyond the three note triad. If you had the Seventh degree to a Major chord it becomes a Major 7. If you add the flat Seventh to a Minor chord it becomes a Minor Seventh.

At first you should concentrate on triad (three note) type chords and soloing over one chord. Pick one chord tone to land on. Try to see how many ways you can land on just one chord tone. Next, try two chord tones, then three and so on.... After you are comfortable soloing over one chord try another chord in the same key. Once you are used to landing on chord tones try landing on the other notes of the scale. Chord tones have a resolved sound, the other notes in the scale are passing notes and can be tense with some notes more tense than others. If you play a ½ step (one fret) above a chord tone the sound will be dissonant (tense). You can use that sound to build tension, then you can play a chord tone to release the tension. This is called Tension and Release.

For both C Major and A Minor chords you can use the C major scale or the C Major Pentatonic. I will talk about scales more in later columns. I strongly recommend anyone, who wants to learn how to solo, learn about music theory. There are several books available at most music stores that can teach you music theory or you can take some lessons.
With music theory you will learn:

1. How to construct the Major scale and many others
2. How to construct chords
3. Commonly used Progressions
4. Chord Substitutions
5. More concepts of Tension and Release
6. How to analyze songs so you can learn from them
7. How to take the music further with untried ideas