There’s nothing quite like jamming out over the top of funk changes and you don’t even need to be plugged in to do that! Once you understand the blues scale- even in one spot on the neck- well, you can either look at it like it’s easier to play reasonably decent lines, or harder to make mistakes. Or both, I guess!
This tune is in C#m, so that’s the 1 chord. Since its a minor chord, the 3rd of the chord is flattened. That tells us what notes are going to work correctly when we play them over the top of the chord. To get started we can play C# (root note) E (flat 3rd) F#(4th) G#(5) and B (flat 7) and if you want to call these guys by their fancy-pants name, that would be “C# minor pentatonic”.
How I generally start with something like this is by remembering that if I’m on the the 1 chord, I need to keep coming back to the 1 note! It might sound crazy to just play one note over the chord but think about it – just concentrating on that single note lets you focus on making making interesting rhythmic patterns rather than worrying about where to put your fingers and scales and modes and all that other stuff. So try this: listen for the 1 chord first. Find that note. Then the other chords in the jam (in this case, E and F#) find those root notes too. now you’ve got a note you can play over the top of all three chords of the A part of the jam! Try to be a little disciplined about what you’re playing by limiting yourself to those single notes and concentrate on making interesting rhythmic changes that work inside the tune. Remember: take small bites! Pretty soon you’ll have eaten a suitcase-sized piece of elephant!
The track I’m using is from Jamin’ Backing tracks and you can find it here on YouTube