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How to improvise over any song on guitar

A step-by-step way into improvising over a song you love: find the key, start from the chord tones, add the pentatonic, then aim for the notes that make each chord change sing.

Updated

Improvising isn't about knowing a hundred scales. It's about knowing where you are in the song and having a few safe notes to land on. Here is a way in that works on almost anything with clear chords — pop, rock, blues, folk, ballads — in four steps, each one a little more adventurous than the last.

1. Find the key and the chords

Before you play a note, you need a map: the song's key (its home) and its chords (the road). Find the key by ear — the note the song keeps coming back to — or look it up. If you're not sure how, there's a whole guide on how to find the key of a song.

For this guide, take a simple progression in A major: A – D – E, the I, IV and V chords. Thousands of songs are built from just these three.

2. Start with the chord tones

The safest notes over any chord are the chord's own notes. Over A they are A, C# and E; over D, D, F# and A; over E, E, G# and B. Play only those, one chord at a time, and change when the chord changes. It sounds simple because it is — and it's impossible to hit a wrong note.

AA · C# · E

5 ways to play it · Tuning E A D G B E

  • ×123Open
  • 2fr1324G shape · 2nd fret
  • 5fr1342E shape · 5th fret
  • 7fr××1243D shape · 7th fret
  • 9fr×1432C shape · 9th fret
More on the A chord

Two things make this sound like music rather than an exercise:

  • Land on a chord tone on the strong beats — beat one of each bar especially. Anything goes in between, as long as you arrive somewhere solid.
  • Move to the nearest chord tone when the chord changes. From A's C#, the D of the D chord is one fret away. Small steps between chords are what make a line sound like it knows where it's going.

3. Add the pentatonic

Once you can follow the chords, give yourself more notes. The major pentatonic of the key — here A major pentatonic: A, B, C#, E, F# — sits over the whole progression without a single clash. It's five notes, one shape at a time, and it holds the chord tones you were already aiming for.

A major pentatonic scale

5 notes

  1. A1
  2. B2
  3. C#3
  4. E5
  5. F#6
Position on the neck
Show on each dot
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Legendtonicscale note
More on the A major pentatonic scale

In a minor key, the same job is done by the minor pentatonic — the scale behind most rock and blues solos.

4. Aim for the notes that make each change sing

Now play the pentatonic freely, but target one note per chord: the 3rd. It's the note that tells the ear whether the chord is major or minor, so landing on it is what makes your line follow the changes instead of just sitting on the key. Over A, aim for C#; over D, for F#; over E, for G#.

Over a dominant 7th chord (E7 instead of E), the 7th — D — is the other note worth aiming for: it pulls back down to the C# of the A chord, and that half-step is the sound of a resolution.

Phrasing: less is more

  • Leave space. A short phrase, then a rest as long as the phrase. Rests are where the listener hears what you played.
  • Repeat yourself. Play a phrase, then play it again with one note or one rhythm changed. That's a motif, and it's what makes a solo sound composed.
  • Slow the song down. Practise at half speed until the chord changes stop surprising you, then bring the tempo back up.

Do it on a real song

Everything above starts from knowing the key and the chords. easyimprov listens to a track and gives you both, bar by bar, with the chord tones and the one note to aim for marked on the neck as the song plays — from "just the chord" up to the modes, five levels in all.