Guitar Noodling Has Finally Been Solved.

[00:00:00]If you've been playing guitar for years, and when you go to take a solo, it still sounds noodley, it sounds wandering, and you feel like you should be better by now, today's video is for you. If this is the first time we're meeting, my name is Alec Lerman. I've played on Grammy-nominated recordings, and I've taught thousands of students these principles that you're going to learn today. The simplest way you can stop noodling is a simple concept I use for all my students. It's simply chord, scale, chord. Now, what that means, we're going to get into in this video, and by the end of today's lesson, you will understand a simple framework to move forward and structure not only your solos, but your practice sessions moving forward. So, let's get into it. Today, we are going to be operating in B minor, similar to B.B. King's Thrill Is Gone, and you are going to need to know a few chords, okay?

[00:01:02]We are going to be playing >> [music] >> B minor, E minor, G, and F sharp.

[00:01:14]>> [music] >> And the other thing you need to know is this minor pentatonic scale.

[00:01:21]It's called a pentatonic superhighway.

[00:01:24]It looks [music] and sounds like this.

[00:01:30]>> [music] >> Now, in a second, I'm going to show you how this all ties together, but the simple principle that stops noodling in its tracks, and it it's kind of crazy how simple it is, is that instead of going and playing your scales up and down and up and down, what you're really going to do is bookend your playing with chords, okay? So, in Thrill Is Gone, you have this. It starts off as [music] right? That B minor chord, right? So, what you can do is play the chord, play a simple phrase that's part of that sliding pentatonic superhighway, and then you end your phrase on the chord, okay? So, that would look and sound like this.

[00:02:12]>> [music] >> Something like that, right? And you do it again.

[00:02:20]>> [music] >> Right?

[00:02:24]When the next chord comes, you do the exact same thing. E minor.

[00:02:31]Right? And then you do the same thing for the next chord, which is B minor.

[00:02:37]>> [music] >> Right? [music] And then when the G comes, you can just outline, and the F sharp comes up, >> [music] >> you can play the chord and just outline some of the notes in the chord, right?

[00:02:55]There specifically I was highlighting the third and the root. Same with the F sharp, okay?

[00:03:01]>> [music] >> It's because those chords change so fast that the chord scale chord might be a little overwhelming. When you have a lot of time, right? This chord scale chord principle solves your noodling problem, right? So, now let's hear it in the context of a backing track, and you're just going to hear me play over a 12 bar blues. These are the same chords you'll hear in B.B. King's Thrill Is Gone. It's a minor blues progression. Again, you know, the first four bars [music] are B minor, bars five and six are [music] E minor, and then it goes back to B minor for two bars, G, [music] F sharp, back to B minor, [music] and then we can do a turnaround on the five chord, right?

[00:03:49]So, we're going to hear this chord scale chord working over this blues, okay?

[00:03:55]This is a great way to stop noodling and jump start your practice session. So, let's get into it. I'm going to play that B minor, do a riff, [music] and end on that B minor.

[00:04:09]Right? Let's do it again.

[00:04:14]Now, let's do for E minor.

[00:04:16]>> [music] >> Same with B minor.

[00:04:25]>> [music] >> Okay, let's do our G to F sharp.

[00:04:32]>> [music] >> Right?

[00:04:35]And this is a great way you can start practicing. This is something I wish I knew about 20 years ago, right? It stops your solos from just being run-on sentences, right? It stops your practicing from just going, you know, >> [music] >> you know, down and up and down and up, and there's really no, you know, structure. So, this chord scale chord principle will absolutely change the way you practice, will change the way that you look and, you know, feel when you solo on guitar. I guarantee you're going to have more confidence when you go and solo just using this little principle, right? It'll stop you from just having your fingers doing all the playing, and it'll have really your, you know, you'll you'll have enough time to stop and pause and slow down so that you're really playing with intention, right? And that's really what it's all about. So, now that you understand this chord scale chord principle, you're going to want to check out this video so that you can understand how to solo even better.