Look Who it Was Random video

minor licks

1,574 views · Published 3 February 2016 · 8:22 · Indexed 6 November 2026

Channel: New Secret Guitar Teacher · 2016 · Music

Watch on YouTube

Licks guitar lesson. How to play licks over minor chords on guitar. Minor guitar licks for soloing. Licks for soloing over minor chords.

From the Secret Guitar Teacher Site: http://secretguitarteacher.com/youtube/ssb.php?lp_id=1131

Video script:
In the last few Sound Bites we have covered a number of approaches to creating licks that work well over Major Chords. Now I want to show you how to apply similar approaches to create licks over Minor chords.

Again our starting point is the E shaped barre chord - or in this case the E minor shape. In the diagram on the left we can see the Em shaped barre chord with its notes marked relative to the Major Scale. 
 
A quick, but important aside here: I want you to note that although we are chiefly discussing minor elements today - we still refer everything back to MAJOR scales. The MAJOR scale is the stable reference point when discussing practically all elements of music theory.

One of the easiest and therefore most commonly used approaches to improvising over minor chords is to simply use the minor pentatonic or blues scale.

In the diagram on the right I have shown how the First position pattern of the blues scale corresponds to the notes of the 'E 'shaped minor chord. Essentially this pattern enables us to add the 4th, b5th and b7 notes to spice up our licks. As you might expect, this will work particularly well for anything that needs a nice blues feel. 

But if you are not particularly aiming for that bluesy sound then you are better off searching out the notes of one of the other minor scales. Notice that each of these three scales adds extra notes to those used in the chord. 

The natural minor notes for me invoke quite a Spanish flavour. Whereas the harmonic minor has a hint of mysterious East about it - something of an Egyptian feel perhaps. And the notes from the melodic Minor are useful to help you underline the more subtle differences between the minor natural 7, minor 6th and minor 7th chords.                                    

Now let's take a look at what we can do with the Am shape. Again, the first line of attack is to use the Blues Scale or Minor pentatonic. But note that to go with this chord shape you need to home in on the Fourth position Blues scale pattern.
 
For a less Bluesy affect, just knowing how to access the 6ths and 7ths from the Melodic Minor Scale gives you plenty of scope. Shown here in the diagram on the right. So those are the two shapes I find the most easy to use over Minor chords. I'll leave you to work out a few ideas of your own over those. And do spend a bit of time using the locations of the Root notes to find these shapes for all the minor chords you are likely to want to work over.

In the next lesson, we'll revisit the Cm shape, the one I call the 'Flying Vee', and show you a great arpeggio based run that helps link all these shapes together.

More from this channel