How to Solo Over Chord Changes with the Pentatonic Scale

I hate to break it to you, but you’re probably thinking about guitar soloing wrong.

Allow me to explain.

When it comes to soloing, one of the first things guitar teachers usually show students is the minor pentatonic scale. The general instruction is simple: learn the scale, then use it to play over a chord progression.

This gets you thinking about what scale you should use for a solo. And that’s an important first step.

But it’s only a first step.

For example, if you see this chord progression:

Am – C – F – G

you might decide that the A minor pentatonic scale would be a good scale to use for soloing. And it would be. You could play A minor pentatonic over the entire progression and get perfectly acceptable results.

But professional players tend to think less about the scale and more about the chords.

Give that same progression to a more experienced player, and they may be thinking about arpeggios, common tones, and passing tones. More advanced players might even think about the modes associated with each chord: Aeolian, Ionian, Lydian, and Mixolydian.

The good news is that you don’t need to know all of that to start soloing effectively.

The minor pentatonic scale will take you a long way. You just need to know when and where to move it.

Think Chords, Not Just Scales

At its most basic application, the minor pentatonic scale can be used over a minor chord and its relative major chord.

Here’s a quick chart showing the minor chords in the key of A minor and their relative major chords:

This accounts for six of the seven diatonic chords in the key of A minor. The missing chord is B diminished, which isn’t used very often in a lot of rock music, so we can skip it for now.

This also tells us something useful about using the pentatonic scale for guitar soloing:

• A minor pentatonic can be played over A minor and C major
• D minor pentatonic can be played over D minor and F major
• E minor pentatonic can be played over E minor and G major

Now let’s go back to our chord progression:

Am – C – F – G

Instead of playing A minor pentatonic over the entire progression, you can start thinking about which pentatonic scale fits each chord:

• Am: A minor pentatonic
• C: A minor pentatonic
• F: D minor pentatonic
• G: E minor pentatonic

In other words, you’re still using the familiar minor pentatonic scale shape you already know. You’re simply moving it to better match the chords.

You don’t need to get out of the pentatonic box…

You just need to move it!

This is an important step toward learning how to solo over chord changes. Instead of thinking, “What scale do I play over this song?” start asking, “What chord am I playing over right now, and where is the pentatonic position that fits it?”

That small change in perspective can make a big difference.

So the next time you’re given a chord progression to solo over, look at the chords. Identify the minor pentatonic position that fits each one, and experiment with moving between those positions as the chords change.

You may find that hitting the changes suddenly becomes a whole lot easier.