Target the 3rd over the IV
A phrase that lands on F♯ as the D7 arrives, so a listener can hear you following the changes.
- Style
- blues
- Written in
- A
- Feel
- shuffle
- Tempo
- ♩=92
- Length
- 1 bar
Numbers are the order you play them, so notes sharing a number sound together. Drop the tempo until it is clean, then bring it back up.
Written in A, and the writing below describes it there. Move it to another key and the shape does not change, only where its root sits — which is the difference between knowing a lick and knowing a fret number.
- 1A · string 4, fret 7
- 2C · string 3, fret 5
- 3D · string 3, fret 7
- 4E · string 2, fret 5
- 5D · string 3, fret 7
- 6C · string 3, fret 5
- 7F♯ · string 4, fret 4vibrato
F♯ is the major 3rd of D7 and it is not in A minor pentatonic, which is exactly why landing on it at the change to the IV chord is so audible. It is one note outside the box — the 4th fret of the D string, one fret below the G you already know.
Play the run out of the box and let it arrive on the F♯ exactly as the IV lands. Do it once per chorus rather than every bar; it is punctuation, not a new home.
Where this fits
This comes out of week 5 of the blues path — getting past one plain pentatonic shape. The week is where you learn the device; this page is where you come back to it once the week has rolled over.