How To Solo Over Chord Changes On Bass With Bulletproof Confidence [Guide Tone Method]

►► FREE: Get the tabs, notation and practice tracks for all the exercises and guide tone lines in this lesson → https://becomeabassist.com/how-to-improvise-over-chord-changes

Today’s bass lesson is all about how to solo over chord changes; how to improvise on bass in a way that you’re outlining the changes. Do this right, and the chords will just ‘pop out’ at you.

You know as a kid, I freakin’ LOVED Pink Floyd. I mean, I still do - but 14-year-old Luke was super into the Floyd, but there was one song that I loved more than any other.

Comfortably Numb

Man - I couldn’t get enough of that song. I listened to it on repeat for months! I remember trying to download live videos of the song on my 2003 dial-up internet and leaving it running overnight, and even then it would take multiple days until I could finally watch it.

Every time I listened to nearly any version of the song, every hair on my body stood up on end. And there was no place this happened more than in David Gilmour’s first guitar solo of the track.

Something about it just captured my attention - the way his solo just seemed to ‘fit’ with everything else that was going on in the song mesmerized me. It also wasn’t a total shred-fest like a lot of other guitarists I was listening to at the time.

There was a precision about every note that just felt incredible, and at the time, I didn’t know why. I didn’t figure it out until years later when I actually looked at what he was playing in his solo and how it related to the chords he was playing over.

Instead of picking the pentatonic of the key and going to shred-town like so many other guitarists, David Gilmour was actually outlining the chords of the song he was playing over.

If there was a D chord, he’d play the notes of a D-chord in his solo. When it changed to an A-chord, he’d switch up what he was doing to match. And of course he was playing with incredible time, tone and feel.

This was so different to the ‘pick-one-pentatonic-and-shred-it-to-death’ approach I was so used to hearing (and trying to play myself), and it seemed so obvious after I realized what was going on.

Of course playing the notes of the chords is going to work! I just hadn’t thought of it.

Today though, I want to show you how you can use this idea of outlining chords to create beautiful, melodic bass solos or even entire melodies - almost like David Gilmour.

You’ll learn:

→ What exactly ‘guide tones’ are and how to find them
→ How to use guide tone lines to create solos where you’re always hitting the butter notes
→ Why knowing your guide tones is almost like having Google Maps for your bass solos

Now I move pretty fast in the video, so if you want the tabs and notation for all the guide tone lines I talk about in the video, plus the actual backing track I’m using, make sure to head here:

https://becomeabassist.com/how-to-improvise-over-chord-changes

Just fill out the form on that page, and I’ll send you everything I used in this video 100% free. You can use it all to start making your own bass solos that are not only incredibly melodic, but where the chords just pop out at you.

Good luck with the lesson and happy playing!

Cheers,

Luke

P.S. Make sure to download the tabs, notation and backing track from the lesson right here:

https://becomeabassist.com/how-to-improvise-over-chord-changes

It’s totally free.

Видео How To Solo Over Chord Changes On Bass With Bulletproof Confidence [Guide Tone Method] канала Luke from Become A Bassist