I have divided the pentatonic scale into small groups around the roots of the blues chords. These groups i will use to approach the roots in the blues, its simpler than it sounds 🙂

I have devided the pentatonic scale into groups.

the groups are associated with the roots of the chords in the blues. The D, G and A.

Ill apply the groups and use them to target the root of the next bar.
in the following example i play the root of the chord on beat one. In the bar before I approach the one with the group belonging to the coming root.

You can see that the root is on the one of each bar and leading to the root I use the notes in the group of the coming root. Leading towards bars with the root D I use F and C as approach notes, leading to a G bar i use A and F and leading to an A bar i use the approach notes C and G. All connected through the groups beloning to the root.

You see in the above example that I in the first bar leading to the second bar, on the four, apply F leading to the G of the second bar. Bar two to three i connect with the approach note C in the group of D. On the ninth bar i apply the G leading to the A. The rule would be that i look in the coming bar for the root and backwards i apply the group beloning to the coming bar.

In the next example i only use the approach note from above. The notes would be F to D, A to G and C to A.

Its clear that the notes are upper approach note in the groups.

This exercise is only applying the notes below the root.

C to D, F to G and G to A. Playing towards the target note which in this case is the root.

This way of practising playing towards a target note is quite simple and easy to get used to.
When soloing in jazz music its common practise that you always play towards a target note to get a clear melodic line.

I go on to the next exercise where i change the approach notes. I dont play only one direction anymore but pick the approach note freely, above or below.

The most important to understand in this lesson to do this a lot, to get this way of playing into your ears and fingers.

in the coming exercise i play the approach note as an eight note so, keeping the same rhythm in the whole exercise but changing which approach note i use, above or below.

You can always add more rhythm which the next exercise will illustrate.
Playing two eight notes approach and melodically choosing the above or the below lying note.

The more notes and rhythm you add before the target note the more complicated it gets of course.

In my next video ill get into more more examples where i use more approach notes.

Let me know if you have questions about this.
I hope that these videos inspires you as much as they inspire me.
Enjoy and have fun playing 🙂

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