Following on from part 3, here are some patterns based around the lower strings. If you followed the first parts of the chord tone sessions then you should know what to do by now. There’s no point in keep repeating the same things, also it’s good to do a bit of working out for yourself. Refer to the other parts first if you have just landed here for the first time.

1. Play along with the backing track using the following patterns.

2. Combine this exercise with the previous patterns on the higher strings.

3. Study the relationship between the full chord shapes (triads) belonging to the key of C major, located around or as close to possible to the third fret. Note how some of these small patterns are just pieces of the full chord shapes, while others are in between the CAGED chord shapes. The diminished chord doesn’t have an associated CAGED pattern so is best viewed in simple triad form.

Chord patterns with note names

Chord patterns interval relationships

In the first two practice sessions we used the common I-IV-V chord progression in C major to practice playing chord tones. Now we will do the same thing again but use all of the (triad) chords in the key. The diagrams show the chord tones based around the third fret like the previous session. No TABS have been created for this session, the same idea applies, just learn the patterns in the diagrams below and play around with them over the chord progression to try and create melodic phrases.

The practice track is in the key of C major and steps through the chords in turn every two bars. The chord sequence is looped as follows.

C / Dm / Em / F / G / Am / Bdim – start over.

Get the jam track here

The patterns for the C, F and G chords were covered in session 1 but I’ll repeat them here again for quick reference. Learn the notes as well as the interval relationships.

Chord patterns and notes.

Chord patterns showing intervals

In part 1 we broke down the top three strings of the C, F and G major chords around the third fret. Once you have spent a little bit of time on part 1 you can now go about playing around with the bottom three strings.

Part 1 covered the general idea of what you need to look out for and there’s no point in repeating that in every session. The diagrams below show you what you need to practice and you can use the same play along tracks as we used previously. If you’ve jumped in here then go back to the first part to get the general idea.

The notes on the bottom three strings for our three chords don’t really fit so easily into the CAGED chord shapes in this position so we’ll use a typical major triad arpeggio style pattern, the first, third and fifth note of each major chord. This pattern can be used anywhere on the neck as long as it isn’t crossing the G and B strings.

A quick note before we carry on, if you haven’t already realised this then it’s best to clear any confusion now. 1-3-5 is the scale note positions for each chord with respect to their own related major scale. In other words, the 1-3-5 for the G chord is the 1st, 3rd and 5th scale degrees from G major, not C major that we are working with. If that’s confusing then I might suggest reading through the music theory section on this site, rather than waste space with it here. If it’s still confusing then ask your questions here or in the guitar lounge.

Play along with the patterns below over the jam track. The greyed note (or green in this case ) is there to try and force you into thinking about the chord tones based around the pattern above and centred around the root for each chord, not just starting from the thickest string.

Here they are embedded into the C major scale.

One more thing. Take note that most of the F shape we are using overlaps the E form bar chord. These are the kind of things you should look out for. After a while all these small pieces fuse together to form one large neck pattern that you view as tiny sections, like joining the dots.

I won’t give any audio examples or TABs for this, just use the same ideas as you did in the first part and the same jam track.

The I IV V progression is no doubt the most common chord progression. It’s been used for years and is still used today in thousands of songs in virtually all genres. In this session we are going to get used to the chord tones on the top three strings in one position. Keep it slow, don’t try to learn too much too fast or it will take you longer.

The Chord progression is looped C / G / F / C / and we will stay as close to third position (third fret) as possible with our soloing notes. In fact, try not to play a solo as such, think more about melody instead, this will get you hearing it much better.

The most likely scale you could use to solo over this chord progression is C major. We are only interested in playing the chord tones for now but always take note of the relationship of the chord tones relative to the CAGED chords and major scale notes as well as each chords own scale spelling, I.e. 1-3-5 for major triads. These are all shown in the diagrams but be sure not to overlook any of it otherwise you will be missing the point of what you are trying to achieve.

The Chord tones for each chord.

• C Major: C E G
• F Major: F A C
• G Major: G B D

Memorise them!

Get the practice track here

The Chord tones and scale spellings (intervals) for C, F and G major chords.

The chord tones above are segments taken from these common chord positions. Remember, the I IV V chords in C major are C, F and G and we want to keep everything close as possible to the C major scale based around the third fret.

Study these diagrams and think about the relationship between them all while you are playing along to the practice track.

Here are a couple of examples of how you can play about with them. Start out by just repeating the patterns over the chord changes like in example 1 to get used to them.

Once you can play through the patterns without stopping to think, you can then try to get a bit more musical with them. We’re not looking to do anything special here, just concentrate on your practice and try to keep changes smooth between the chords. The ultimate goals are to keep a short distance as possible between the changes, in other words try to think about the changes before they occur so that you can be prepared and only a fret or two away from a chord tone when the chord change happens.

Don’t allow yourself to be put off because you are playing elevator music. If you try to do these examples at 3000bpm then your just going to make it harder and take longer. Slow down, keep it simple and start digging that country sound!

Audio Example 1

Audio Example 2

Example 1 TAB

Example 2 TAB