E9 Neck – Major Thirds and Perfect Fourths – 4th & 5th Strings


Amazing Grace on Pedal Steel

When playing a tune in a major key, it is often nice to have a bag of tricks for playing over the 1 chord.  I often find it useful to play major thirds and perfect fourths, and mix these intervals to create riffs and pleasing tones.

In the key of F, these pairs of notes can sound great over the F chord (the 1 chord if we are using the Nashville number system). The following chart displays some of these intervals/pairs.

E9-MajorThirdsAndPerfectFourths-4th&5thStrings

The intervals/positions with an asterisk next to them are great to “land on” or resolve to, and the others can sound nice to pass through on the  way to these.  Experiment with these and see if you can come up with some cool licks or fresh ideas!

Click on the diagram for a better view (on the attachment page you can find a full zoom view).  Enjoy!

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