Improvising over Rock Progressions

Essential Rock Theory - Scales, Chords, and Concepts

We won't hammer theory in this course. After all, it's rock! But knowing a little bit goes a long way. Here we'll cover some of the fundamental ideas we'll use throughout the course. We'll also cover the scales and chords to cover 95% of the songs you'll run across in rock/pop.

Playing over vamps

Before tackling progressions, it's crucial to be able to play over a vamp, one chord played over an extended period of time. We'll go through examples of major, minor and dominant chord vamps and see how we can use these ideas as we move to progressions.

How Blue Can You Get?

So much of rock and pop has its basis in the blues. The blues is deceptive. It seems simple, and it is, yet it's very flexible. We'll explore basic blues and cover some essential differences between blues and rock.

The King of Rock Progressions

We'll encounter the rockiest of rock progressions - the King of Rock Progressions that occurs in countless hits and dominates Classic Rock Stations. The "mixolydian progression". We'll understand its construction and power and explore our options for soloing as well.

Southern Fried Progressions

There's something magic about Southern Rock. We'll cover some progressions favored by Duane and Dickey and discuss strategies for improvising over them.

Hit Me with Your Best 80s Progressions

Pop-rock has its own progressions. Groups like Journey, Foreigner, Pat Benatar, and Bryan Adams had some great guitarists who knew how to quickly make their points and then get out to let the singer shine. But guitarists like Neil Giraldo and Neal Schon knew how to rock too!

Pink Carlos

Things aren't always quite what they seem. Such is the case with some common progressions used by Carlos Santana and Pink Floyd. We'll get a bit modal and explore the Dorian mode as an alternative to the more common minor pentatonic. We'll understand WHY it works and can be so expressive.

Dock of the Soul

R&B goes hand in hand with the blues and early pop music of the 1960s and early 1970s. Players like Steve Cropper and Cornell Dupree influenced rockers like Jimi Hendrix and The Black Crowes. R&B progressions have some standard wrinkles and we'll explore a classic progression and its improvisation strategies.

Back to the Blues

We'll mine more from the blues - some minor blues and jump blues - to see more ways rockers can use its bounty!

Beyond Standard Progressions

What happens when you run into a progression you don't know? What happens when tonal centers shift? What about odd-ball chords? We've got you covered. We'll play through examples that show how to handle pretty much anything that's thrown at you!