Why You Still Get Lost When The Chords Change(And How To Fix It)

Yo, if you know your scales and like, maybe some theory, but you still feel lost when the chord changes move or you don't feel like you're able to meaningfully make the changes, this video is for you. We're gonna talk about exactly why that's happening and what you can do to fix it. Alright, cool. So I got this backup track and I'm gonna give you guys an example of what it sounds like to not make the changes and basically just be stuck in a box. So here. Okay. Right. So I'm basically just noodling around the scale now. I'm going to show you what it sounds like to actually make the changes. Okay. Of course, I was. I was playing with a little bit of rhythm and stuff like that. But what I want you to realize is that in the first example, I was basically just like playing up and down a geometric shape of a pentatonic box. In the second one, I was making intentional note choices about where I wanted to land within the chords and, you know, outlining and accenting certain notes. And if you're using a geometric pattern to do that, you're just never going to be able to do that because you have no awareness of where you are. You have no awareness of what's going on. And so, yes, most of you were basically taught scales as like one of two, like, in my opinion, not gonna say incorrect, but they just do you a disservice. If this is the only way you can conceptualize your scale, you either learned it as like fret numbers, that's by far the worst. If you just learned it as like. And you're just conceptualizing literally fret numbers of like 7, 10, 7, 9, 7, 9. That's the worst after that, the second worst, I would say is the letter names because it's too much information. It's not too much, but it's not for the guitar. It makes no sense to try to memorize the fretboard with letter names and to conceptualize that this is. I'm in the key of B, that this is B, D, E, F sharp A, B, D, E, F. And to understand that, like it's better than fret numbers or just like a geometric pattern without even thinking about fret numbers. But really that's not teaching you the language of music in the most efficient way. The best way to conceptualize this, and I have another video specifically about this called A better way to visualize the Pentatonic scale, but it's to see things numerically because this teaches you the core language of music. And it teaches you in every key. I conceptualize songs in minor as being based around note 6. So this would be 6, 1, I'm playing my pentatonic scale. 6, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6. 1, 2, 3, 5,. 6, 1, 7, 6, 5, 3, 4, 5, 4, 3, 2, sharp one flat 7, 6, 5, 4, sharp one, 3, sharp one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. 1, 2, 3, 4, sharp 1, 3, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 1, 7, 6th, 5, 6, 6. So other than to just. I don't mean to flex on you guys, but like, I hope you're understanding that awareness. What you're lacking is awareness. I am keenly aware of every single note that I play at all times. And how does this relate to playing with the changes? Well, the other level of awareness is first of all being able to even follow the changes with your ear. And even if you do know what the chord changes are, understanding exactly what notes in the tonal octave each chord shares and like what, what notes each chord has, right? So like, if we're going to take this key of B minor to understand that like the sixth chord, whether you have the exact order in your awareness or not, just understanding the sixth chord is made up of notes 6, 1, 3 and 5. And that if you land on these 6, 1, 3 and 5, like those are the chord notes, those are the defining notes of that chord. Compared to something like the two chord or. Yeah, yeah. The two chord is made up of notes two, four, six and one. And so it's like, do you have in your awareness that the two chord and the six chord share two notes? Do you know what they are? It's notes six and one. And what do they not share? Well, note two has that note four in the chord. And so that's kind of what you can use to differentiate it, right? So I can play a solo and I can make the changes without even having a backing track. Right. I'm going to play a quick little improvisation over the 6 and the 2 chord in my mind and you're going to hear very clearly when I decide to switch. So if I go, Right, the 6, 6 chord, that's the 2 chord, Back to the sixth. So I got a little carried away and I threw in a three dominant chord at the end. Right. But you could hear that something was changing. And I was able to outline that because I'm quite aware that the, the three dominant chord is made up of notes three sharp five, seven and two. And so if I want to accent that, I know to play lines that accent those notes and so why is this important to know? And why is this different than what most people are talking about? Because what I'm saying is you need to memorize less about memorization, more about conceptualization relative to the tonal octave. Right? There's no such thing as a minor chord in. In space, right? Your minor chord is almost usually going to be the six chord, the two chord, or the three chord. And it's like each of those have their specific components as they relate to the tonal octave. And so what's a. What's a concrete exercise that you can do here? Well, what you can do is you can take two chords. Let's take the six chord and the two chord. And basically what you're going to do is you're going to alternate improvising between only the chord notes of the 6 chord. So. So that's notes 6, 1, 3, and 5. And only the notes of the 2 chord. That's notes 2, 4, 6, and 1. And I'll just give you an example of what that can sound like. So I'll say in the key of B minor, this is my six, right? And I'll say the num. The. The numbers, the notes is implying, right? So I got 6 1, 3, 3, 1 6, 3, 6, 5556531, 3, 4, 1, 3, 1. I'm gonna switch to the 2, 2, 4, 6, 1, 1, 6, 2 6, 11 6, 42224, 3, 6, 6. I went. I just switched to the 6 chord. Right, because note 3 is on the 2 chord. 6, 1, 3, 5, 6, 6, 11633, 1, 1, 3, 4. What chord did I just switch to? 2, 4, 6164216642, 3, 6, 6. So that is a really beautiful exercise to get the sounds, the geometry, the relationships all in your ear and your fingers in your consciousness. And once again, this is built on the idea that you need to be aware of what the heck is going on. You need to have a name to call everything that you're doing. If not, you're just. You're just blowing in the wind with these shapes. So look, if what I'm saying is clicking with you. If you're like, okay, this guy is. This guy knows what he's talking about, I want to learn from him. I put together something for you to use to actually train this stuff, rather than just like, see a video about it and kind of get a surface level explanation. You can find it in the bio. It's free. And then, yeah, after you check that out, if you're interested in working closer together, either one on one or in a group setting, that's also an option. I'm here to help you guys. Drop comments in the comments if you have questions and I'll see you all next time.