Tonight I had a final go at "Stevie's Groove" and finished Session 19.
I am very happy with the progress made on soloing over the last 5 months, although I am far from done with this.
Besides knowledge of scales, it is the concept of Chord Tone Soloing that is giving me the necessary fundament for soloing (when playing a solo over a chord progression, the chord tones of the underlying chord are the safe notes to land on in your solo).
To put Chord Tone Soloing into practice however, the only way I find working for me is to learn chord arpeggios and to build the muscle memory.
Now this is a big task. Following the CAGED system, this means learning 5 moveable patterns for major and 5 for minor triads, and extend that to also cover 7th chords (major, minor, (half-) diminished etc.).
But it is worth the effort! To be able to instantly make the connection between the chord, the chord tones and the related scale or mode is a very important skill and is a breakthrough in my development as a guitar player. This is where it all comes together.
I will continue to work to improve my soloing, but now it is time to start the last session of the main course and to also learn the last song of the Song Hits. "Don't know why" by Norah Jones. I can't think of any better way to complete this journey.
Wim.