How to Improvise Melodies Using I IV Chord Progressions

Hi Friend,

It’s always fun learning stuff on the guitar isn’t it?

So right now I’ll give you a few ideas I have.

One of the most common chord progressions is
known as “I IV” or “ONE FOUR”. That basically
means going from the root of a key , to the
fourth degree of the key.

You can do this with any kinds of chords.

Last week, I showed you an example on my
blog about doing this with major 7 chords.

see www.claudejohnson.com/blog

That progression was Amaj7 to Dmaj7.

But you can also try A to D, or Amin to Dmin.

…Or A7 to D7 , which is basically the blues.

You can also mix and match – for example A major to D7.

Try different chord *voicings* and you’ll get
a different flavor each time.

For example, if you’re in A, you can play this
standard major chord:

—5—
—5—
—6—
—7—
——-
——-

Or you can play this:

—5—
—8—
—6—
—7—
——-
——-

which is an A7 voicing with no 5th.

Some of the most sophisticated, hippest
sounding chord voicings purposefully leave
out notes.

When you go to the D chord, you can try
a D7 like this:

——-
——-
—5—
—4—
—5—
——-

which also has no 5th degree.

You can add the ninth degree
for a D9 chord – which is even
more hip:

——–
—5—-
—5—-
—4—-
—5—-
——–

or the ninth and fifth: (still D9)

—5—-
—5—-
—5—-
—4—-
—5—-
——–

You can also eliminate the root (on purpose)
and you’ll get something like this: (D9)

—5—
—5—
—5—
—4—
——-
——-

This chord voicing (D9 with no root) is great
by itself for a funk vamp, especially if you
slide into it from a halfstep (1 fret) below.

Finally, you can kill the 3rd degree
of the chord, and you would just have this:

—5—-
—5—-
—5—-
——–
——–
——–

Its a very “thin” (but ultra-super hip) way
to play the D9 chord.

You’re just playing the 7th, 9th, and 5th. Although technically,
it has the same notes as Aminor, you wouldn’t
be using it as an A minor if you played it
as the “4 chord” in a I IV progression.

You can also play the V chord like this

—7—
—7—
—7—
——-
——-
——-

which, again… on the surface looks just like an inverted B minor,
but you would be using it to imply a very hip-sounding E9.

Hope that makes sense.

Anyway, there’s a lot of ways on the guitar that are
easy once you figure them out, but sometimes it helps
to have someone who really knows whats going on, tell you
what to do.

That’s why I created Killer Guitar Control Secrets.

I created a short presentation for you to check out,
to explain more of what I mean:

https://guitarcontrol.net/gc-preview/gcblog4/main.php

Check it out!

Rock on, Claude

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