Make your first real improvisation. Over the included E7 backing loop, you'll see where each E7 chord tone sits inside the stack, how consonance and dissonance give a phrase its shape, and the classic blues move on the minor third — then practice targeting specific notes so you can reliably land somewhere that sounds good. This is the payoff the whole module has been building toward.
This lesson’s section of the Course Guide.
You can read this here or in the full guide →
The first improvisation exercise is to use the minor pentatonic stack shape to play over a dominant seventh vamp. Don’t worry if you don’t know exactly what that means yet. The details will come later.
There are four notes in an E7 chord: E (root), G# (third), B (fifth), and D (flat seventh). It’s worth memorizing where the four notes of a dominant seventh chord fall relative to the minor pentatonic stack. Note that these notes always fall in the same locations in the stack, so you can use them across the entire fretboard.
The root, fifth, and flat 7th are all part of the pentatonic scale, so they all sound consonant, meaning they fit well with the chord. The root (the red circle) and the fifth (the blue square) fit exceptionally well, so they are great places to end a phrase when you want it to feel like you’re making a statement. Ending a phrase on one of the other notes can sound more like a question.
The other notes in the stack (the ones in black) are best used as passing notes. If you emphasize them too much, they may clash with the backing track.
It is worth noting that you can bend the upper note on the upper string up a whole step (the equivalent of two frets) to reach another fifth one octave above the one in the stack. This bend sounds great and is widely used.
It’s also very common to give the lower note on the upper string a small bend into the grey area between its normal pitch and the note one fret higher.1 When you play this bend, make sure you choke off or mute the note before releasing your bend. Ideally, you will hear the pitch rise but not fall.
Memorize this: In this diagram, the red and blue notes are great target notes when playing a minor pentatonic scale over a dominant seventh chord. Just remember to give the lower note on the upper string a slight bend up.
Exercise 1: In one stack position, over the E7 vamp backing track, practice creating phrases that end on the root.
Today's version:
Exercise 2: In one stack position, over the E7 vamp, practice creating phrases that end on the minor third (the lower note on the upper string). Practice giving this note a slight bend when you land on it, or hammer-on to the note one fret higher.
Today's version:
Exercise 3: In one stack position, over the E7 vamp, practice creating different phrases that target each of the chord tones.
Today's version:
Practice these exercises in different stack locations, ensuring that you get used to playing phrases and targeting notes when the stack lies across the warp.
That note is the minor third (G, in E minor pentatonic), but the E7 chord has a major third (G#) one fret higher, so held straight, the minor third rubs against the chord. In almost every classic blues phrase, the guitarist does one of two things with it: a quick hammer-on up to the major third, or a partial bend like this one. The bend usually stops short of the major third, somewhere between the two. That in-between pitch is a big part of why the minor pentatonic sounds so at home over a dominant seventh chord.
↩E7 Vamp
E minor · 88 BPM · one-chord vamp
The Module 1 backing track, with the E minor pentatonic stack drawn on the fretboard and the E7 chord tones marked on it. Four bars of E7 and nothing else, which is the point of a vamp: one chord means every bit of your attention can go to where a phrase starts and where it lands. Slow the tempo down if you want more room to think between phrases.
Drag across the chart to loop a few bars.
Chart running ahead of the sound? Nudge the visuals until they land with the beat. Bluetooth speakers and headphones add a lag the browser can't measure.
Discussion (6)
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So, is that 1/4-tone bend on the flat 3rd a kind of convention that allows you to keep using the minor pentatonic scale over a major chord?
And if the chord is a Maj7, could we also apply that 1/4-tone bend to the flat 7th?
It’s striking to use a minor scale as a basis for building melodies over a major chord.
Yes, that’s the convention. The slight bend pushes the minor third toward the chord’s major third, and that in-between pitch is one of the defining sounds of the blues. It works over a dominant seventh because the minor pentatonic’s flat seventh is already in the chord. That leaves the third as the only real rub, and the bend turns it into expression instead of a wrong note.
On a maj7 chord, I wouldn’t do it with the flat seventh. The chord’s seventh sits a full fret higher, so a quarter-tone bend parks the note halfway between the two, and it just sounds out of tune. With the minor third clashing as well, the minor pentatonic isn’t a good fit for maj7 chords. That’s the major pentatonic’s job: A major pentatonic over Amaj7 has no clashing notes at all. Module 2 introduces the major stack.
And you’re right, it is striking. On paper, a minor scale over a major chord shouldn’t work. The blues says otherwise, and Module 8 digs into why.
--Keith
This is great 😃👍 I'm really loving this native looper vamp now. Very nice addition Keith!
Hi Keith. Would you be able to include a volume control for the backing track (or point me to where it is if I'm being blind?). I'm usually practising on headphones, using a plug-in for my guitar sound (on a MacBook) and for whatever reason I have to run the volume on the audio interface quite high to be able to hear any plug-ins well. That means I usually have your videos playing at about 10-20% volume. Many thanks, Martin
Since I don't think this is a super common use case, I "hid" the control under the "Audio control" disclosure at the bottom of the player. It should remember your volume setting across the site on each device.
've finally got my head around those six notes and how they're used within the rectangle. It's really starting to make sense now.
I can also see there's at least a month's worth of work just in Module 1, especially once you start moving the E note to other notes using concepts like the Circle of Fourths. There's a lot to absorb, but I can already see how valuable it is.