How to Solo on Guitar Over Any Chord: The Pentatonic Method

You know your pentatonic box. You can run it up and down. But when you try to solo over a real song, it sounds like noodling, and the moment the chords change you feel lost. If you have been wondering how to solo on guitar so your notes actually fit the music, the answer is simpler than you think: follow the chords.

In this lesson, GuitarZoom instructor Steve Stine shows a fun, fairly easy way to use the pentatonic scale over any chord progression. Instead of staying in one box the whole time, you switch to the major or minor pentatonic that matches each chord. Steve calls it "chord chasing," and it works for any chord in any key, even when the progression gets strange.

Video: How to Solo over ANY CHORD Using the Pentatonic Scale, Steve Stine. Watch on YouTube

How to solo on guitar: the big idea

Most beginners learn one pentatonic scale and play it over the whole song. That can work when every chord is in the same key. But it often sounds aimless, because you are not paying attention to what the band is playing.

Chord chasing fixes that. You look at each chord and pick a pentatonic scale for it:

• Major chord (C, F, G, B♭...): play the major pentatonic with the same root.
• Minor chord (Am, A♭m...): play the minor pentatonic with the same root.

Steve uses a four-chord progression in C: C major, A minor, F major and G major. So over C you play C major pentatonic, over Am you play A minor pentatonic, over F you play F major pentatonic, and over G you play G major pentatonic.

As Steve says in the video, this is not a licks lesson. Don't worry about what he plays. Watch where he plays it. Once you understand the "where," you can use your own ideas over any progression.

Step 1: Learn the minor pentatonic shape

This is the shape most guitarists learn first. Here it is as A minor pentatonic, with the root (A) on the 5th fret of the 6th string. Use your first finger for the 5th fret notes and your third or fourth finger for the higher notes.

A minor pentatonic (5th position)

e|-----------------------5-8-|
B|-------------------5-8-----|
G|---------------5-7---------|
D|-----------5-7-------------|
A|-------5-7-----------------|
E|---5-8---------------------|

While you play it, know where the roots are. In this shape the A notes sit on the 6th string 5th fret, the 4th string 7th fret and the 1st string 5th fret. Steve points out that knowing the roots lets you "target" them. Ending a phrase on the root is the easiest way to sound musical.

To play any other minor pentatonic, just move this shape so your first finger on the 6th string lands on the new root. Need A♭ minor? Start the shape at the 4th fret. Need C minor? Start at the 8th fret.

Step 2: Turn it into major pentatonic (the three-fret trick)

Here is the part that makes chord chasing easy. You don't need a new shape for major pentatonic. Take the minor pentatonic shape and move it back three frets.

Example: C is on the 8th fret of the 6th string. If you play the minor shape at the 8th fret, that is C minor pentatonic. Move the same shape back to the 5th fret, and now your pinky (on the 8th fret) is on C. That is C major pentatonic.

Notice that this is the exact same shape as A minor pentatonic. That is not an accident. C major and A minor share the same five notes (C, D, E, G, A). The only difference is which note you treat as "home." Over the C chord you aim for the C notes. Over Am you aim for the A notes.

Here is how the trick works for every chord in Steve's progression, plus a few he uses later:

Steve says even this one idea is powerful. If you only take one thing away from the lesson, take this: find the root, and you can play the minor or major pentatonic over any chord.

Step 3: Chase the chords

Now put it together. Make a backing track with C, Am, F and G. Steve uses an app, but you can use any looper, backing track or a friend strumming. Then follow these moves:

1. C chord: play the box at the 5th fret (C major pentatonic). Aim for the C notes.
2. Am chord: stay right where you are. The same box is A minor pentatonic. Now aim for the A notes.
3. F chord: move up to the box at the 10th fret (F major pentatonic). Aim for F.
4. G chord: move up two more frets to the 12th fret (G major pentatonic). Aim for G.

Here is a simple example of landing on the root of each chord. It is just a target exercise, not a lick to memorize:

   C          Am         F            G
e|-5-8-------|----------|------------|------------|
B|-----------|----------|-13-10------|-15-12------|
G|-----------|-7-5------|-------10---|-------12---|
D|-----------|-----7----|------------|------------|
A|-----------|----------|------------|------------|
E|-----------|----------|------------|------------|
  ends on C   ends on A   ends on F    ends on G

Play it slowly with the backing track. Then make up your own phrases, but keep the rule: when the chord changes, change your scale, and try to land on the new root.

What about chords outside the key?

This is where chord chasing shines. Steve shows a progression that goes from C to B♭ and then to E♭. Those chords don't fit neatly in the key of C, so one scale won't cover them. With chord chasing you don't care. You find B♭, move back three frets and play. Then you find E♭, move back three frets and play.

Steve mentions that a lot of session players, country players and rock players solo this way. It is a great tool when you are not sure what key a song is in, when the chords move outside one key, or when someone asks you to take a solo and you need to sound good fast.

Level up: chase chords in one position

Moving up and down the neck is perfectly fine. But once you know more pentatonic positions, you can play every chord in one area of the fretboard.

The pentatonic scale has five notes ("penta" means five), and those notes repeat across the whole neck. That means the C, Am, F and G pentatonic scales overlap in many places. Around the 5th fret, for example:

• C major pentatonic: C, D, E, G, A
• A minor pentatonic: A, C, D, E, G (same notes as C major pentatonic)
• F major pentatonic: F, G, A, C, D
• G major pentatonic: G, A, B, D, E

In the video, Steve plays F major and G major pentatonic in other positions in that same area, so his hand barely moves. As you get used to this, something cool happens: you start to see all the shapes at once, and you slip into the full seven-note C major scale without trying.

Steve's advice is to keep seeing them separately at first. When you think "C major pentatonic over C," you notice which notes belong to each chord. If you blend everything too early, you can fall back into just running a box without emphasizing anything important.

If you want help moving between positions, read how to break out of pentatonic boxes.

Practice plan: 15 minutes a day for one week

Go slowly. It is better to change scales on time with three notes than to play fast and miss the change.

Where to go next

If you are brand new to soloing, start with the 6-note soloing technique, then come back to chord chasing. For ideas on shaping a solo from start to finish, read 3 steps to building a killer guitar solo.

And if you want a full step-by-step path, the Soloing Simplified course walks you through how to solo on guitar with scales, targeting and phrasing in a clear order.

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