Yup… I know it’s a really compelling title today…
So let me tell you why you (should) care about today’s lesson… because this is the stuff that makes amazing players sound amazing and just OK players sound – just OK.
When you write a perfect essay it leads your reader with words exactly where you want them to go… and they follow along just as you intend and by the end have digested your story just as you intended.
Well when you construct a perfect solo it leads your listener through the chord changes and exactly where you want them to go.
And the best place to start with this is in bar 5 of the 12 bar blues pattern where it goes from the I chord to the IV chord.
So today I’ll show you how you can create some signature licks of your very own that lead your listener to the IV chord just like you want.
And here’s the lick I walked through at the end if you want to play it exactly:
Try putting together some of your own licks and write them down, record them, do SOMETHING so you don't forget them. This is one way you build vocabulary and have more cool things to say at your next jam.
Enjoy!
68 replies to "Target Tones For The IV Chord"
Great stuff as always !!!!
Enjoy the Holidays
Thanks
Hey Griff, thank you for that idea 💡
Can’t wait to work on that. Thanks again.
Hi, Griff.
Why land on the 3rd, rather than the iv chord root?
Griff this video was just spot on thank you!
I have been exposed to the topics of voice leading and target tones, but haven’t seen anyone going into the details of how to actually approach solidly learning the skills.
This gives me some useful tools.. Thanks Griff.
AWESOME pearls… thanks so very much.
Great lesson!
Getting people to think. Thanks Grif.
Really looking forward to BGU Dallas!
Griff – Your instructional videos are goldmines, then you always follow up with nuggets like this. Thank you for all you do to raise the bar and skills of folks like me who enjoy learning to do better – even though I only jam to tracks at home and with a buddy now and then. You’re the best teacher of blues. And the best value out there. Good on you and your family.
Hey Griff
Thanks again for the video. Every single time I listen to one of your videos I find another piece of the jigsaw that is playing blues guitar – which of course is the point of the videos! But for me it’s not random – it’s an extra to my understanding of theory and arsenal of licks – & how to make my own. So many thanks Griff – you keep the interest flowing.
Kevin
If you spend a lot of time playing to jam tracks and just noodle around searching for interesting note sequences outside of the pentatonic notes, you’ll notice you will find some nice ones. What Griff has done for me is explain WHY they sound good. It seems to me, then, there are (at least) two ways to approach a fun sounding riff. One is to just keep poking around and play notes that “work” and/or use music theory to tell you what notes you “should” play and consciously attempt to put them in the riff.
I discovered, for example, if you play a note that is wrong (i.e. sounds bad by itself) but is right next to one that is correct and then slide or hammer or pull-off to the correct note it sounds cool. Of course I didn’t invent anything. I just discovered something all good musicians know and that is to make some tension (bad note) and resolve it quickly to the good note. It like a mini release. We have all heard it and enjoyed it 1000s of times.
Griff, I hope you will follow up with a segment showing the use of Box 4 of the IV chord for a minor sound.
I am a newbie, but you are saying in the video that the key is G, yet three sharps, as are on the tab, is the key of A. Then, the example you play at the end is in G, but the tab below the video is A. It is nice to see that it is possible to play the same pattern in different keys just by moving it to different places on the neck. I should mention that the stuff you give away for free is priceless and there is more of it than I can ever hope to cover. I bought two digital courses almost a year ago that I have barely scratched.
Thanks a bunch Griff. Something simple, a hege help for me.
Hey Griff,
Great lesson and thanks to your new Blues Guitar Unleashed -V 2 Course this was very easy to follow and Bob has done a fantastic job helping Jim to understand the 12 Bar blues Format which can be found by purchasing the BGU V 2 Course of 9 DVD’s and 31 lessons – DVD 1 Lesson 2 page 12 in the Hard copy Manual. Once you learn this you can easily follow the Video lessons that Griff does on this topic
This will be of a great value to learn the 12 Bar blues Format which Griff just does a fantastic job of making it so easy to follow especially with his type of video lesson.
Thanks Griff, just great to add to my repertoire of phrases.
Michael – Sydney Australia Learning Blues Guitar since 2013.
Griff,
You are a great instructor and your subjects on your lessons are always something I have wanted help with from someone. Target tone is exactly what I have been stumbling with in my head for months off and on.
Thanks again for the shove in the right direction.
J. Allen
thank”s griff,,awesome lesson thank”s for the brake down on target tones.and thank”s for letting us download all your grate stuff,thank’s again you will make us all grate blues guitar players yet,practice,practice,practice,
This lesson hits a home run Griff and it gives direction on how to break out of that just randomly playing notes huge indeed nice explanation Bob thanks again teach for your commitment to us players your the best !!!
like this. very easy. justa side note, for a treky’ my proffeson was working as a aviation tech and a flight engineer I worked for Gulfstream. I was Harrison Fords Flight mainenace engineer we got to be good friends I and my partner took apart his bi plane for the movie six days and seven nights we planted it in the sand. after his crash I visited in the hospital he has a house in Kuiai and I’m always welcome to stay there can’t wait for this new one to come out. thanks for the lick.
Excellent information once again Griff. Thanks.
Thanks, Griff. Another cool idea and another cool shirt, as usual.
Another light went on in my small brain thank you Griff, thanks also to the responders of this video, good stuff.
Thanks for a very informative demo ,and your teaching techniques are easily one of the best.
this is new ? Well if it is or is not thats okay . always looking for new ideas to work on and expand . this certainly will help . this seems to be where i am trapped going all over the place with no place to go and making no sence at all. this clears the way for expanding the vocabulary T-you .
Ya I agree with Phil. Just great stuff. Thks.
Thanks Griff, you have the gift of reducing complex to simple.
lnteresting.
Anyway of download that backing track please?
If you have 52 Rhythm fills and variations, there are several nice tracks in G.
Cheers from the UK
Thanks Griff from all of us over here in the UK. Keep it coming.
Thanks Griff from the UK
Good lesson ,Sir Griff … Thanks again
Well explained and the lessons that I have are really great tools to use.
I believe it was Steve Trovato in an old guitar mag article who demonstrated what he called the Voodoo Scale, which is essentially the minor pentatonic scale but with the b7 replaced by the major 6th. Robben Ford has also taught about this. So what you end up with is: 1 b3 4 5 6. This scale gives you all the chord tones of the IV chord, but it sounds great over all the changes in the 12-bar blues progression. The major 6th is a cheerful change for when you want to get away from the more down home sound of the b7.
Great lesson, Griff. I felt like I was starting to get somewhere when I began to see and hear the chord tones that fit the chord that was playing at the time. Practicing arpeggios has helped me the most with that. One of my biggest problems, which Griff has alluded to, is that if you play too many chord tones over one of the changes, you can start to lose the sound of the blues. So I am working on selectively picking chord tones while retaining the basic sound of the I chord scale.
Thanks, Griff.
just excellent for average players like me thank you for knowledge
Great video Griff, the half step note insertion of 2-3 and 6-b7 give smooth continuity. Your clear explanations alway help. Thanks, Mike
Good Stuff here Griff. Matt Schofield does this so well. Doesn’t he?
Thanks Griff,
Another great video.
Good video with essential details we need to remember. Very helpful!
Just a side note (see below in My response to Jim’s question):
The TAB is in the Key of A. So just “lower it” a whole step (2 notes/numbers) for the Key of G.
Blues On!!!
Bob
Or in “C” with relative “Am “
Thanks for the tools to go on perfecting my craft . This lesson is by far one of your very best .
As always, simple, essential, doable, very well explained. And it it doesn’t matter what “level” you think you are at.
Thanks Griff.
Griff,
Nice presentation, I like the idea of creating ones own sound with a structure behind it, and the ability & style of a person creating a new sound.
Thanks,
Jerry
Awesome refresher Griff from last year’s get together with Bob M in Colorado! You da man!!! Missed you this year my friend! I am also trying to use the arpeggios (7ths) for chord tones. What a difference. Fewer sour notes now at chord changes. Stay well and see you in the future.
Bob Utberg
Parker, CO
Great simple explanation on improving a solo conversation with the chord progression Griff. This is something I have been looking at for a long time and it helps to try different notes of the chord as you get a different emotion from each. You can then apply the principles to all chords and solos The 3rd of a chord seems to be most dramatic and the root strong and stable. I love the 2nd (9th) for its emotional depth. As you become familiar it becomes easier to choose which chord tone to use at which point in a solo to say what you wish to say Love talking with my guitar, keep up the good work.
Bernie Heerey
Griff thanks your the best
Thanks Griff your the best
Top stuff as always. Thank you for your humble and generous delivery of vital information. A wise man once said “A great teacher makes learning fun”. Keep up the good. From down under.
That is, Keep up the good work!
Griff, This is such a relief, I have been looking for a clearly explained way of identifying the best chord tones to land on when switches chords from I to iv V, V IV I whatever, and this is a start,
For me, to say you got to the flat 7th of C , its easier to identify that as the not that precedes C (B flat) AND more importantly , to say show where the third and 7th is in each of the five boxes. esp going from the I=IV or more.
If you could construct a solo or two , also the lines of Easy BLues Guitar soloes 2, say, SRV or Clapton style, take us through those with the chord tone switches in each box position, as you started to do here, that would be something I would buy NOW.
So many teachers expect one to fumble around without showing why they are going to certain tones on chord changes, this would be a great item. Please consider.
What 4 chords?! …and do we play 3 or 7 of ’em?
Hi Jim,
Griff means “The Four Chord” or IV (that’s Roman numeral 4) of the song. For instance, in Girff’s example, the song is in the Key of G. Most Blues songs will be in a 12 bar I/IV/V format. That means the following:
The first four bars (measures 1-4), you play a G7 – i.e. the I chord (The One Chord G7).
The next two bars (measures 5 & 6) play a C7 – i.e. the IV chord (The Four Chord C7).
The next two bars (measures 7 & 8) are back to G7 – the I chord (One Chord G7).
The next bar (measure 9) is the V Chord (The Five Chord) – D7.
The next bar (measure 10) is back to the IV (Four Chord) – C7
Measure 11 is the G7 and measure 12 is typically the V Chord – D7.
So Griff wants us to hit the SWEET NOTE as the song changes from the G7 chord in measures 1, 2, 3 and 4 to the C7 chord that starts on beat one of the fifth measure (bar). The sweetest notes of that C7 chord are the 3rd and flatted 7th of that chord – i.e. E and B flat.
I hope that helps. Bob Utberg
P.S. The TAB for the lesson is in the Key of A, so drop everything down two “numbers” – or a whole step and it will match the video. Sweet pickings everyone!
Excellent clear explanation Bob you provided for Jim
Thank you very much! But, I owe it all to my best teachers out there! And Griff is on the top of the list.
good to see some answers, thank you.
Bob, nice and clear explanation of the meat of the lesson. Thank you.
Sweet!
Great lesson Griff. Another pearl in the string to become a necklace!!
I particularly enjoy the short, but really important tip lessons, that just get me to think about WHY & HOW!!!
Thans for everything!!
Great lesson. Always good to know your destination before you get there.
(Unrelated note) I stumbled by accident today that the blues note works the same in Major pentatonic scale as it dose in the minor pentatonic scale. Maybe fuel for a future lesson.
In my view, what it boils down to is : your ear is your best instrument…
Thanks
Are you using box one over the G rather than Em because you are on the 1 chord? Does that give it a major sound?
After all the practice,still finding ways to get it through my left and right sided thick head.
Thanks for keeping it all interesting,!
Dl
great treatment of leading tones , thanks for breaking it down Grif.
Very nice! Thank You
Thanks Griff, another little gem.