Chords for How to Jump into a Guitar Solo

There are some things that you should never just jump right into like season 4 of Vampire Diaries or the Japanese thrashcore scene
But guitar solos are meant to be jumped into and we're gonna talk today a little bit
About how you can go from playing open chords to jumping into more of a lead part and specifically
Like a minor pentatonic or a minor scale lead part, right?
So we're gonna do something in the key of D
So we're gonna take three chords from the key of D
Which is just gonna be D major, [A] [G] A major, and G major and find out how we can get into
[E] The minor pentatonic spot how we can kind of like fluidly get into there instead of just going from chords to solo
Right, I think especially when maybe you're playing
Solo or maybe playing with one other person and not in the context of a band
It's good to kind of connect these things to together to kind of make like a fluid type thing, right?
So again
The reason we're going to the B minor pentatonic scale, the B minor scale is because it is the sixth note in the key of D
D, E, F sharp, G, A, [D] B and that is where the minor pentatonic or the minor scale exists, right?
So again, we need to go from this [A] open position of a D [G] to an A to a G twice
_ _ into the
Pentatonic scale here, which is gonna be 7 10 7 9 7 9 7 9 7 10 7 10, right?
So we're going from here to here and how are we gonna connect these and specifically [D] I want to connect it to
_ [G#m] This note right here, which [D] is the seventh fret on the G string
Which happens to be a D because we're in the key of D
So a good place to start off a solo that doesn't mean you have to start a solo here or lead playing thing here
But a good place to start thinking about it is on the tonic or the root note of the key that you're in, right? _
So we're gonna start off with this progression here D, which is the 1
[A] _ To the [G] 5 to the 4, right?
_ And instead of just doing that [D] [G] and then going right into the pentatonic scale
We're gonna connect these together doing two different things
and the first way we're gonna do it is we're gonna
link an arpeggio into
That scale that a lot of people are familiar with and you can do this with any kind of scale like if you'd rather go
Into a major pentatonic or the major scale so we can do the exact same thing
But we're gonna take our ending point of this [D] progression, right?
So D
_ [A] _ _ [G] _ _
G _ _ and we're gonna use this G note as our root note and we're gonna make a _
[D] _ four note arpeggio [A] that we're gonna [D] repeat
That's gonna lead [Gm] us into that note the D right D being the the fifth of G
You don't even have to remember that you can just remember the shape, right?
So the shape is gonna be root note here on this G.
[A] We're gonna go
to the fifth [B] fret to the [E] seventh [D] fret
_ Down a string to the fifth [G] fret right so we've got a G a [D] B D
All right, [Gm] and then now we [G] can go down a string
_ This is an octave G and [A] we can do the same thing
[D] _ [G] So I've got [A] one kind of [D] arpeggio
Scale, [Gm] however, you want to see it move
[D] _ Repeated into an octave that leads you right into that tonic [Em] part of the [D] _ _ _
minor pentatonic
Shape so we'd have a D
[A] to an A
_ [G] to a G _ and
[E] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _ _
[E] That kind of connects your chord playing into maybe lead playing or whatever kind of like lick you'd want to do in the pentatonic
Shape now, you don't even have to take a solo here
this could just be a way to make your rhythm playing more interesting just to kind of like
Open up the fretboard a little bit, right so we can connect these two [G] concepts with one [D] arpeggio
Through two octaves into [Gm] maybe the place that you're going for [D] or another way to do it is just to use maybe alternative chord voicings
To kind of work your way into that spot.
So what I mean by that is
We've got this D chord right here really popular shape [B] now another shape.
You probably [Dm] already know is a D
_ minor chord
[D] _ Now so since D is the one chord in the key of D the two chord would be a E minor
But instead [Em] of playing this E minor we're gonna [Dm] play like a D minor shape
[G] [Em] But up two frets higher to make an E minor
Right here.
And since the three chord in D is also [F#m] a minor chord.
We're gonna go up another two frets
To make F sharp minor [D] and then we're gonna finish
_ _ Back [Bm] in that same spot, right [D] so we can go from a D to a [E] E minor to a [D] F sharp minor
_ _ there and we're kind of leading into
You can think of this is actually just like a bar chord
Voicing here or just kind [A] of getting into the top of [G] that pentatonic shape doesn't matter how you think of it
It's just good to kind of know a different a couple different ways to get through it, right?
So we've got [D] D major chord _ _ [A] to a
_ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [D] _
G and then you're kind of just into that same spot, right?
So
Again, one more time.
I'm just gonna go D major [G] E [F#m] minor F sharp minor
[D] _ _ Into D, right
So I'm using chord [G] voicings to kind of link together and just try to make a more fluid way instead of just going from
A chord right into a scale
I think kind of once we start combining
Chords and scales and arpeggios and just like knowing the notes and stuff like that
You might find that you'll find a more fluid playing style and developing what you do, right?
[E] So one more time.
We've got D [D] major _ _
[A] Okay
_ [G] _ G the arpeggio _ [D] _ _ _ or D _
[A] _ _ [G] A to G
_ _ [D] _
_ _ To the chords, [N] right so you can think of chord voicings you can think of arpeggios you think of scales
I think really it's just a really valuable way of learning the entire fretboard and then being able to jump into something that you're more
familiar with now you can do this in any key and the nice thing about
Maybe like like the arpeggio run especially [G] is this particular [D] run will lead you right into the tonic of the minor pentatonic
_ Anytime you start it on the four chord, right?
So since D E F sharp G G is the four of D.
That'll always run you
Into [E] the the root note of the key ring, right?
So let's take a different key
Let's take like the key of E or something like that where we've got
[A] _ An A so if we start on an A and we kind of do that [Em] same thing
Where do we end up with we end up on an [N] E which is the root note, right?
So it's just kind of like these things will eventually become second nature and your ears will be able to lead you there
but it's just kind of good to know a couple different tips of like how arpeggios can lead you into a particular part of a
Key, and hopefully eventually you will start to feel