[ padding=”0 20px 0 20px”][lollum_dropcap]T[/lollum_dropcap]his lesson is the second in a series and comes from a reader’s request that I received. Find the first part here.

They were having a bit of trouble improvising over a  I, vi, IV, V  (1, 6, 4, 5) progression which can be found in hundreds of popular tunes.

The Guided Jam Track that we’re going to use for our lesson is “Stand By Me” by Ben E. King.

It sticks to the I, vi, IV, V ( Amaj, F#min, Dmaj, Emaj ) progression all the way through and the tempo is slow enough not to leave you out of breath by the end of it.

Let’s check it out.

Stand By Me Improvisation using Pentatonics

Last time we used arpeggios to create our solos. This time we’re going to jam on this tune using major and minor pentatonics. This adds two notes to each arpeggio that we used in the first lesson.

To the minor arpeggios we’re adding the fourth and the minor seventh,
giving us Root, Minor Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Minor Seventh.

• Minor Arpeggio    = 1  b3      5
• Minor Pentatonic = 1  b3  4  5  b7

To the major arpeggios we’re adding the second and the sixth,
giving us Root, Second, Third, Fifth, and Sixth.

• Minor Arpeggio    = 1      3  5
• Minor Pentatonic = 1  2  3  5  6

        common note | added note

You may notice that they pentatonic scales for the A major chord and the F minor chord are the same. You’ll need to highlight the chord tones to really sync your solo up to the progression. If you have trouble remember where those notes are try jamming on the first lesson for a bit then come back and try again.

If you have trouble following along simply focus on playing the notes from the bottom two or three strings. In a short while you’ll be able to memorize where those notes are and add in more strings.

Have fun & let me know if you have any questions.

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