Tomo Fujita Guitar Wisdom

I found this lesson after Brad Ekr posed the question about "8 Bar Blues". The lesson here is quite well constructed:

There area actually several slightly different solo examples in this lesson. And I just noticed that the solo example starting at around :41, for the third bar D chord, seems to be using an A minor pentatonic lick. The notes used are all chord tones for the D major chord. Is this something typical, one could do for the IV chord?

"Seems to be using A-minor pentatonic" is is the operative phrase. But it is much more than that.

You can see that most of a D chord fits in the A- pentatonic/blues shape, as well as many of its color tones, so you know that you can certainly find a "lick that fits" and sounds ok. (what about that 3rd, the most important quality defining tone? -- it's not there!)

But the construction of the line is the dance between the thirds and sevenths between the two chords and the 1/2 step bends that get us to them, which don't really fit in the "box" and which change role as the progression moves along. It's hard to think "lick" when you're hearing melody and building a "conversation" .

Knowing the form, the progression and guide tones and color extensions will help you weave a coherent melody between all the holes that are in a pentatonic shape. Thinking A- licks in an A major song just seems backwards to me now, even though that's how I used to think of it for years.... decades really. I'd miss those great sounding 6ths and 9ths (or only stumble on them by accident) and that great sweet spot between minor third and major third.

So yes, it is good to notice, theory-wise, how chords fit into scales and discover why something perhaps unexpected works out so well. But it is still important to turn auto-pilot off and not run shapes just because they're handy and sound ok, which I think was the whole intention of the video.