Chord Chasing Made Simple

Your solos don’t have to sound like scale drills. We dive into chord chasing—the practical way to switch your note choices with each chord—and show how a handful of smart targets can transform C–G–Am–F into a melodic story. Instead of sprinting across the fretboard, we stay in one position, highlight the notes that define each chord, and reveal how separate pentatonic shapes fuse into the full C major scale.

We start by mapping C, G, A minor, and F to their matching pentatonics, then focus on overlap points so you can pivot smoothly without losing your place. You’ll hear why chord tones do the heavy lifting, how to pick one or two anchor notes that actually sound like the harmony, and when to use shared tones as subtle bridges. To sharpen your ear and control, we raise the stakes with a non‑diatonic twist: inserting E major before F. You’ll learn two ways to handle it—shift your pentatonic shape back a fret or keep common tones as glue—while always landing cleanly on the next chord.

Along the way we contrast long‑term fretboard vision—CAGED, triads, and shape awareness—with short‑term execution, where you choose a simple target and make it sing. We include a backing track and demonstrate three passes: a rigid, mapped version; a looser exploration; and a musical take that prioritizes space, tone, and resolution. If you’ve ever wondered how pentatonic fragments add up to diatonic fluency, or how to make fewer notes say more, this walkthrough gives you a clear, repeatable path.

Ready to turn shapes into songs? Listen now, try the backing track, and tell us which chord gives you the most trouble. If you’re finding it hard to break through, check out Guitar Zoom Academy for a custom plan. Subscribe, share with a fellow player, and leave a review to help others find the show.

Links:

Check out the GuitarZoom Academy:
https://academy.guitarzoom.com/

• Steve’s Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/stinemus...
• GuitarZoom Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/guitarz0...
• Songs Channel → https://www.youtube.com/user/GuitarSo... .

Chapters

• 1:11 What Is Chord Chasing
• 1:35 The C G Am F Framework
• 2:55 Staying In Position And Overlaps
• 5:30 Connecting Scales To Chord Tones
• 7:15 Visualizing Long And Short Plays
• 9:20 Simple Walkthrough Of The Progression
• 10:36 Adding The Non‑Diatonic E Major
• 11:40 Backing Track Exercise And Layers
• 13:10 From Rigid Notes To Musical Phrasing
• 14:45 Pentatonics Combine Into Major Scale
• 16:45 Using Outlier Notes As Passing Tones

Transcript

Steve: 0:36

Hey Steve Stein from Guitar Zoom Academy here. Today we're going to be talking about how to do what I call chord chasing, which is really just it's a very common thing that people do where as the chords change, they change the scale that they're playing to accommodate that chord. It's one option that you have in your availability of being able to, you know, solo in different ways. So my example would be my chord progression is going to be in the key of C. So I'm playing C major, uh G major, A minor, and F major. Now, all four of those chords fit in the key of C. So the idea here is that over the C major chord, I'm going to solo in C major pentatonic. Over the G major chord, I'm going to solo in G major pentatonic. Over the A minor chord, I'm going to solo in A minor pentatonic. And then over the F, I'm going to solo in F major pentatonic. Now, the bigger picture here isn't just that. It's once we've got that established, how these chords actually, each scale kind of melds together to create one larger scale. Which again, you might already know that, but we're kind of thinking backwards here. So let me show you what I mean. So over the C chord, I might play C major pentatonic. Now I don't have to be here. I could go anywhere I want on the guitar, but I'm just going to be here for now. And then here comes the G major chord. So then I have to think, well, I'm going to go to G major pentatonic, but I don't want to go all the way up here. Like I don't want to be running around the fretboard. I could, but I don't want to. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to play G major pentatonic in this same spot. And I want to be aware of two things. Number one, the difference between the C major pentatonic and the G major pentatonic. There are some notes that overlap and there are some notes that don't. And the second thing I want to be aware of is when I'm playing over that C major pentatonic or over that C major chord with C major pentatonic, I want to make some sort of connection to that chord. Because some of the notes of the scale are part of the chord, and some of the notes of the scale are not. I want to try and look for something that connects to the chord and the scale at the same time. So if I'm playing this C major chord, for instance, and I play this, that note is part of both the scale and the chord. Okay? It's the fifth. Now you might not know what that is. You might. That's fine either way. This note is the C, that's the root, and it exists over the chord as well as in the scale. So my point is they're gonna be notes that overlap. I want to look for one of those notes or multiple of those notes that overlap. I don't feel obligated to play all of them. I just want to find something. So if that C chord's being played, I might just do something very simple like now, here comes the G chord. Now I know I've got my G major pentatonic here. I don't need the whole thing though, but it would be nice to be able to see that. But what I want to do is kind of move into that same realm here. And again, emphasize something that connects to the chord and the scale at the same time. But then I've got these outlining other notes that I can use to kind of use to uh to maneuver a bit. Here comes A minor. Now A minor and C major are the same scale, but I'd want to be looking for something that connects to the A minor this time. And then here comes the F chord. Now the F chord, again, you've got to learn to see all these things, obviously, but my F major pentatonic is sitting right here. And I'm not saying that you're gonna see the same things that I do in the same spots that I do. Maybe you see it somewhere else on the guitar, and that's perfectly fine. You have to always think you've you're building long-term plays, and then you're learning how to uh create short-term plays at the same time. Your long-term plays plays are how do I visualize these various scales and these chords? Again, maybe it's the cage chord system, maybe you're learning your triads, you know, whatever it is, however it is that you're studying, but you're learning how to see all of these things. And the short-term play for me is is how can I learn how to see those all kind of in the same spot? Right? Because we're dealing with this chord progression, it's a very common style chord progression. Um, so there's nothing out of the ordinary at this point. So if I'm playing and I go C, and then here comes C, uh, excuse me, G. There's my G major pentatonic, and I'm gonna go to this note, I'm just choosing that, and then here comes A minor, so then I go back into A minor pentatonic, and then here comes F. Again. I have that whole scale that I can use, but let's just keep it nice and simple. So I was on the A minor, and here comes F. You know, maybe I do something very simple like that, again, outlining what I see there is my F chord sitting there. So I'm kind of looking at my C chord here, my G chord here, my A minor chord here, and my F chord. It's a C chord moved all the way up to F. So those are what I'm visualizing, and then I'm playing the pentatonic around it. So here's my C, here comes my G, here comes A minor, and then here comes F. I could stay on that note because it's part of it, but I'm gonna build, you know, maybe something like that. Now I've got a backing track here that I'm gonna include as well that you can use. The second part of this, I tried to make this just a little bit more difficult by adding in a chord that does not fit in the key of C. So now we're gonna go C to G, which are both the same, same setup, but then we go to an E major chord, and then F. So we're going to E major and then F major. So now again I've got my C major pentatonic outlining, finding something that connects to the C chord. Here comes G. But now here comes E. So basically that F major pentatonic that I played, all I'd have to do is move that back one and I'm on E major. Okay. Now this is where you have to start using your ear a little bit. It's not just about playing the scales. You've got to find a way to meld them together in a way that sounds musical, and that's the next step that I want to show you. But let me start by just showing you a little exercise that you could start with to develop this. So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna pull up a backing track, and uh it's that chord progression I just told you about. It's C major, G, A minor to F, and then it's C major to G to E to F. So what I'm gonna do is I'm just gonna take a little part of this over C and then G and then A minor, and then F and then C, G, E minor, or E major, excuse me, and then F. And just play a little bit of those notes to kind of show you what this sounds like, okay? Here we go. E major M. Okay, so now what I'm gonna do is the same thing, only this time, I'm not gonna play it so rigid that way. I'm just gonna play those notes a little bit and explore those a little. And then the third time I do this, I'm gonna start trying to target the notes a little more. So let me show you. So here we go. So it's not so much about movement, it's about making these connections musically. So I'm gonna play less. I'm still gonna be thinking about some of that stuff in my mind, but I'm gonna play less, and here we go. So starting at the beginning here. Here comes A minor. Here comes F. C. Back to that G. C.

unknown: 10:52

G.

Steve: 10:53

Here comes E now. Gotta be careful. Okay? So we're starting to build a little bit. Now, there's a couple of things in there though. What I want you to understand is that if I took the C major pentatonic and the D minor pentatonic and the E minor pentatonic and the F major pentatonic and the G major pentatonic and so on, and I combine them all together, I'd wind up with the C major scale. That's that's the beauty of this, is you're really just chopping it into pieces for each chord. But if you were to accumulate it all back together, it's gonna wind up being the diatonic scale, is what you're gonna wind up getting out of this. So as you're doing this, there's a couple of things that stick out in my mind that I I could use to make this a little more flowing. If I start learning to visualize, let's let's hold it off on the E for now, because that's the one that doesn't fit. But if I start looking at all of these chords as and the scales that they're they're they're um that are accompanying them, if I start looking at those scales and I start seeing the notes that you know exist in C, but they don't exist in G or you know, don't exist in F or something like that, those outliers, those notes become notes that I can use in those other chords, but they're not emphasis notes at that point. Let me show you what I mean. So if I'm playing in C major pentatonic, my notes that I'm really targeting are like, you know, like these notes, for instance, because they're part of that chord. When the F chord comes up, that note is the same for both of those, but the F gets this note. Okay, where the C got that note. So what I become aware of is the fact that I have both this five and this six sitting here. And I can play both of those notes over any of these chords. The difference is I don't want to get overwhelmed with that idea. I still want to try and target the right notes at the right time. But that becomes another note that I can utilize in my motion from moving from point A to point B or something that I want to do to create more melody with this. So let me show you what I mean. So if I'm playing over the C chord, here comes G. Here comes uh F A minor, and then here comes F. Now I might do something where I utilize that five as well at the same time to get back to my C. So I don't feel restricted to just doing pentatonics over each one of these. I can see how they're actually working together to combine a bigger picture together. Does that make sense? That's kind of the fun of this, is you start seeing all of these. So you've got this bass line, which is these pentatonic shapes. And then you've got the chord shapes, and they're working together. And then you start seeing how they're all kind of overlapping each other and giving you other opportunities of notes that you can play at different times. The big thing you want to keep in mind is what are you emphasizing at that point? That's very, very important. You know, if it's C, don't just play everything. Learn to highlight things. These notes are more important because they connect the scale and the chord together. Here comes G. I want to highlight these notes, try and connect those together. So now the last thing I want to talk about is the E chord because E major pentatonic would look like this. And F. So the discrepancy is this note, that note, and that note for the F. This one, E major wants this, and F wants this. Now, I can do that. There's nothing wrong with that. There's no rule that says I don't want to do that. My ear is saying, though, over that E, I kind of want to still use this note because I like the sound of it. I've been using it the whole time. It doesn't adversely affect anything about the E chord. Now it sounds a little awkward, but if we play it in context, let me show you what I mean. So we're gonna start at the beginning here. Here comes C. Here comes G. Here comes A minor. And we've got our F coming. See I use those two notes right there. Back to C. Now listen, here comes our E. See, I opted for that note that fit over both the normal key that I'm in, certainly the F chord that's coming up, because I know that that's coming next. So if I wanted to use, you know, this note or this note, I could do either one over the E chord. When the F chord gets there, I have to make the adjustment back to the F. But I chose instead of playing that note, I use this note. Okay. So there's the beauty of this is there's no right and wrong to these things. You have to explore this. And please remember that watching videos, sometimes you you watch it and you go, oh, that's really cool, or wow, I could really use this, or there's something in there that I could I could benefit from. You have to really sit down and explore that thing. Practice with intention. Don't just, you know, try and absorb the whole thing. Find something in there that makes sense to you. And then you have to spend time practicing that. Not just your exercises and your scales and things like that that you need, but practice your creativity, practice your fretboard and how these things work together. Now, if for some reason, you know, you've been trying to do these sorts of things and you get really frustrated because you're just not making the progress that you want and the amount of time that you've been, you know, playing, or, you know, you just can't seem to get to the next level. I want to remind you that Guitar Zoom has what we call the academy. And um, you know, it's an opportunity for you to finally get where you want to go. It requires time, it requires work, it requires practice. There's really no shortcuts other than the fact that we create a custom plan. We we listen to you and play with you and assess your playing and talk to you about your struggles and all that sort of thing, and start, you know, developing an actual game plan to get you from where you are to where you need to go. And if that's something that you might be interested in, please do me a favor and you know, just check out Guitar Zoom Academy. You know, we can always set up a phone call and just talk about it. So take care, stay positive, and I'll talk to you soon, okay?