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Blues Connections: Major

Creative Improvisational Approaches for Blues Soloing

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Blues Connections: Major
Jason Loughlin

Jason Loughlin

Educator

blues

Genres

About this course

One of the key qualities that distinguishes great blues players is their ability to 'play the changes' by targeting chord tones in their solos for the chords they're improvising over. Accomplished improvisers can also take simple musical statements (motifs) and develop them into powerful solos that connect creatively and harmonically. In this edition of Jason Loughlin's Blues Connections: Major, you'll learn both of those critical soloing skills for blues progressions in a major tonality.

"A lot of players shy away from the major pentatonic when soloing over a blues because it forces the player to actually 'play the changes', meaning you have to be aware of what chord you're playing over and choose a corresponding scale and arpeggio to match. This can be overwhelming for players who have only improvised with one minor pentatonic and/or a blues scale for the entire tune. The blues scale sounds great, but by not being able to target chord changes you're limiting yourself to painting with one color."

Blues Connections: Major lays out a system for learning how to solo over changes to add a whole new dimension to your lead playing by focusing on building a language, not just connecting licks. You'll learn how to play major pentatonic scales in all five positions, how to voice lead them, and how to effectively and easily target tones. Jason will also share a variety of powerful improvisational devices that will help you shape powerful and engaging blues solos.

"Section 1 covers all of the basics for major pentatonic scales. You'll learn how to build them on single strings, in all five positions, and how to voice lead the scales over a three chord progression. In Section 2, You'll learn how to apply passing tones like the b3 and b7 and voice lead them over a three chord progression.

Section 3 is called "Highways", where you'll learn the sliding major pentatonic along with the single string scales to help you connect positions and move all across the neck. Section 4 is dedicated to improvisational concepts; we'll discuss how to creatively develop motifs to get the most out of the simplest ideas.

In the last section, you'll utilize all of the approaches and concepts from the course by working through six solos together with Jason, five of which are dedicated to five position on the guitar and then the sixth solo connects all of the positions."

All of the performances are tabbed and notated for your practice, reference and study purposes. You'll also get Guitar Pro files so that you can play, loop and/or slow down the tab and notation as you work through the lessons. Plus, Jason generously includes all of the rhythm tracks for you to work with on your own.

Grab your guitar and let's play the changes with Jason Loughlin!

What you'll learn

  • Apply motifs in retrograde for variation
  • Combine multiple musical concepts into cohesive solo phrases
  • Connect major pentatonic scale tones using chromatic passing tones
  • Harmonize melodic lines with pedal tones using double stops
  • Build a complete solo using three distinct motifs
Release date: 01/22/2016 • 1h 26m runtime
intermediatelate intermediateguitarelectric guitarsoloingimprovisation
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Sample lessons
Voice Leading Major Pentatonics
Voice Leading Major Pentatonics
Overview
Voice Leading Position 3
Voice Leading Position 3
Demonstration
Major Pentatonics With Passing Tones
Major Pentatonics With Passing Tones
Demonstration
Voice Leading Position 3
Voice Leading Position 3
Demonstration

What's included

49 lessons • 24 charts • 2 Jam Tracks

Blues Connections: Major
Hi, I'm Jason Loughlin and welcome to Blues Connections: Major. A lot of players shy away from the major pentatonic when soloing over a blues because it forces the player to actually "play the changes", meaning you have to be aware of what chord you're playing over and choose a corresponding scale and arpeggio to match. This can be overwhelming for players who have only improvised with one minor pentatonic and/or a blues scale for the entire tune. The blues scale sounds great, but by not being able to target chord changes you're limiting yourself to painting with one color.

This course lays out a system for learning how to play changes that will bring a whole new depth to your lead playing by focusing on building a language, not just connecting licks. We'll achieve this by doing a few things: Knowing our major pentatonic scales in all five positions and in multiple keys, voice leading the major pentatonics into each other, targeting chord tones, and using some basic improvisational devices to shape powerful solos.

The course is divided into five section. Section 1 will cover the basics of the major pentatonic. We'll learn how to build it on single strings, all five positions, and look at how to voice lead the scales over a three chord progression. Section 2 will walk us through the major pentatonic with common passing tones like the b3 and b7. We'll also learn how to apply these notes to our five modes and how to voice lead them over a three chord progression. Section 3 is called "Highways", in which we'll learn the sliding major pentatonic and this scale along with the single string scales to help us connect positions and move across the neck. Section 4 is dedicated to improvisational concepts; we'll discuss how to really develop motifs to get the most music out of the simplest ideas. In our last section, we'll work through six solos together. Five of which will be dedicated to five position on the guitar and one solo that connect the positions.

We've included all the backing tracks, notation, and tab for all the examples. Let's get started!
SECTION 1: Major Pentatonic Scale
In our first section, we'll learn how to build the major pentatonic scale and the five modes across the neck. Then I'll show you how to voice lead them into each other over a 12 bar blues.
Building The Major Pentaonic Scale
First let's look at the major pentatonic formula: Root-2-3-5-6. We're going to build the scale off of a single string so we can see the intervallic relationships between the scale degrees. You can create a major pentatonic off of any note if you follow this formula: whole-whole-minor 3rd-whole-minor 3rd. A minor 3rd is one and half steps. As you're going through the scale, focus more on what scale degree you're on rather than the note's name.
Five Modes Of The Major Pentatonic
There are five notes in a pentatonic scale, which means there are five modes of it. Some people refer to these as the five positions of the pentatonic scale. We'll be building a scale pattern off of each note in the pentatonic scale, always starting on the 6th string. The goal is to try to stay in position as much as possible, only shifting positions to make more efficient fingerings. Say the scale degree numbers out loud as you move up and down the scales. Even better, sing them!
Voice Leading Major Pentatonics
In order to voice lead pentatonics, we need more than one chord. I've picked a three chord progression for us to practice our voice leading. We'll be using A, D, and E, meaning that we have to have command of the corresponding major pentatonics for each chord. So we need to know A, D, and E major pentatonic and the five modes for each. The idea is to ascend and descend through the A major pentatonic scale until the chord changes to D. At that point, we need to change to closest note in the D major pentatonic scale and keep moving in the same direction. It's kind of like musical chairs for scales.I've picked eighth notes as my rhythm and I begin by ascending. I recommend not doing this with the track at first, just take the time to really think about what you're doing and where the next note is before you move. You should be rushed. Once you're feeling comfortable try it with the track. As you progress, try using dotted eighth/sixteenths, triplets, sixteenths, and various combinations. Also try starting descending from the high E string. Keep forcing yourself out of comfort zones. With this lesson, I've included backing tracks in three different keys.
Voice Leading Position 1
For this example, we'll voice lead over a 12 bar blues in A. I'm using mode 1 in A, which puts me on the root, mode 4 in D which puts me on the 5th, and mode 3 in E which puts me on the 3rd. This will make sure I stay in or around the same position. Take a second and review these modes.
Voice Leading Position 2
For this example, we'll voice lead over a 12 bar blues in A. I'm using mode 2 in A, which puts me on the 2nd, mode 5 in D which puts me on the 6th, and mode 4 in E which puts me on the 5th. This will make sure I stay in or around the same position. Take a second and review these modes.

+ 42 more lessons

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Reviews

13 results

gregdeB

Verified buyer

07/19/22

Blues Connection, Major

Blues Connections, Major By Jason Laughlin is the perfect course for someone looking to learn their Major Pentatonic scales and how they are connected over the blues form. This is especially important for learning how to play over changes, which is really at the very heart of all western improvising. The student will also learn the 5 "CAGED" forms of the major pentatonic scales, how they relate to the chords being used at the moment and how they change to the next scale used over the next chord. This is a very useful lesson and Jason is a very good teacher!

pmorey

Verified buyer

06/25/22

Very thorough coverage of major pentatonics

AzizAziz

06/17/22

Love it

I'm writing this review only after finishing this course. As an Advance Beginner, it took me less than 3 weeks to finish it. There are no shortcuts in this course. You will learn the 5 positions of Major Pentatonic. I gained quite a bit from this course, especially from Section 5 where there is a good breakdown of what he's playing, and what Motif is at play. That being said, there are some gaps in this course, mainly in section 3. It felt incomplete with a lack of explanation or tabs. The lesson jumps from very basic to advance without much explanation in between. But I'd still highly recommend this course because if you want to master the Pentatonic scale and gain better understanding of Improv, this course add alot of value.

Brad

07/20/21

Superb!

This course has been an eye opener, full of those "aha" moments, and it constantly makes me wonder how I got along without this before. If you want to learn your major pentatonic shapes, and how to "properly" use them, and remember how to use them, then this is the course.

krvavi

07/16/21

Blues Connections - Major

Jason is great teacher, and he knows how to transmit his knoledge to you in simple understanding way. Lot of new stuff to learn. Thank you so much for this one!

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