by How To Solo Over Chord Changes On Bass: It’s one of my favorite topics to talk about and there are so many ways to do it.
You can just pick the key of the song and go crazy with the pentatonic for that key, you can improvise based on the melody of the song; you’ve got tons of options.
What’s a guide tone? It’s something you can use that will act as a roadmap when you improvise on bass. You can almost think of it like Google Maps for your bass solos.
It’ll give you a path to play on so no matter what happens, you can improvise with bulletproof confidence.
And once you can do this, you’ll have options! You won’t be stuck with playing the pentatonic scale of the key or just playing the bass line – you can actually outline the chords of the song in a really musical way.
Check out the lesson here:
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FREE - Download 'Google Maps' For Bass Solos
Get free tabs and notation for the Guide Tone Lines in this lesson and start creating your own melodic bass solos - TODAY!
Do you have to use one of these guide tone lines every time you go to improvise? No – and you shouldn’t do that.
No bass player wants to be predictable or boring when they improvise and doing the same thing every time you take a bass solo will definitely make you both boring and predictable.
Even if you’re playing songs that don’t use full 7th chords, you can still use this idea. You can check out David Gilmour playing a solo on Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb and you’ll hear him land on 3rds and 5ths just about the whole time and it sounds fantastic.
Make sure if you want to give this a shot, that you download the tabs, notation and backing track on the form above. You can use that today to start making your own roadmap to get through chord changes.
Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!
Cheers,
Really enjoy your online material and the downloads. Great job!!
Thanks Steve – really appreciate it.
Thanks Luke. I’ve recently been playing through Autumn Leaves and you very well timed lesson with your easy to follow explanations will definitely improve this. Thanks for your lessons.
That’s awesome Richard – impeccable timing! Haha!
Great confidence building lesson! Autumn Leaves in C minor is a great blueprint. I typed my email address and was redirected to the notation. I was looking for the backing track as well, but don’t see it.
Hey Dion – the backing track will have been sent to your email address that you put in. If it hasn’t shown up, just check your ‘spam’ or ‘junk’ folders just in case it’s been sent there accidentally. And by the way, in the video, Autumn Leaves is actually in Bb major/G minor. C minor is just the first chord, but not the home key.
Luke, I’ve been wanting to solo for YEARS hoping that one day i would know enough stuff to start soloing… and with your lesson here I’ve been able to play something that sounds like a solo and grooves too!!! A door just opened up for me! Thanks you so much!
That’s awesome Dan!! I’m so happy for you and glad I could help!
Thank you for teaching us and thanks for PDF files that you send to your students