Anyone who has studied music, even at the beginner level, has probably come across the so-called II-V-I progression. If you haven't studied it, then your ears have probably been exposed to it numerous times. The II-V-I progression is one of the most widely used chord progressions in virtually every genre of music and in this guitar lesson we will look at one way of soloing over this common chord progression.

The II-V-I progression works so well because of our ears' own desire to want to hear resolution in chords (BTW - I have never come across a satisfying explanation that describes this psycho-acoustic phenomena in terms of the physical characteristics of our ears and brain. Anyway...).

The roman numerals of the chord progression refer to notes in the major scale. Consider D Major. We have the following:

I won't get into the details of diatonic scales and their harmonization (some of my other lessons have touched on this). Suffice it to say, that for any given key, there is a certain pattern that dictates what chord types go with which notes of a major scale. In the case of a II-V-I progression in D Maj, we have E Min7, A Dom7 and D Maj7 comprising the II, V and I, respectively. We could also consider triad chords but seventh chords sound so much more interesting!

There is a lot of information out there on this and other chord progressions but there is often a void in applying lead/solo playing to the progression. So in this guitar lesson, I will show you one simple concept that may very well open you up to a whole new approach for playing lead guitar!

The concept is simple - reinforce in your mind (and in your hands) where on the fretboard you can play II-V-I solo lines.

Consider the riff below:

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What I have done in this riff is fixed my left hand at the 9th fret and worked out arpeggio fingerings that outline the chords in the II-V-I progression. So even though we stay fixed at the 9th fret, we are able to achieve harmonic complexity by seeking out the various arpeggios.

You can apply this concept in a virtually limitless fashion to other fret positions and strings. One logical follow on would be to consider another common chord progression (e.g. I-VI-II-V) and come up with a similar arpeggio outline of the chords. From there you could consider chord substitution, and from there ...

I hope this article has opened your mind and ears to one of many approaches for developing proficiency and more importantly, creativity on the guitar!

Later,

Brian