What to play over any V chord

A scale is a list of notes you are allowed to play. A line is a decision about where to go. This is both halves: which scale fits the V chord in front of you, and the notes that get you out of it.

Four collections for the V chord, ordered by how far outside the key each one takes you
The two notes that resolve themselves, whichever scale you chose
The note you can land on and simply hold through the chord change
And what to do when your scale does not contain the target at all
Four written lines, one per collection, in a single fingerboard position
A printable PDF, free, no course to buy

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The idea the guide is built on

A ladder, not a list

Four seven-note collections, all played over the same G7 going to the same C. The only thing that changes is which notes you draw from — and they line up in order of how much of the key they walk away from.

Mixolydian G7

The major scale itself, played from its fifth.

G A B C D E F

0notes
outside the key

Mixolydian ♭9 G7(♭9)

C major with the sixth lowered, played from its fifth.

G A♭ B C D E F

1note
outside the key

Phrygian dominant G7(♭9,♭13)

C harmonic minor — the parallel minor — from its fifth.

G A♭ B C D E♭ F

2notes
outside the key

Altered G7alt

A♭ melodic minor: melodic minor a half step above the chord root.

G A♭ B♭ B D♭ E♭ F

4notes
outside the key

The first three are the parallel minor creeping in. Flatten the sixth of C and the V gains a flat ninth; flatten the third as well and it gains a flat thirteenth. Those two borrowed notes are the flat sixth and flat third of the key you are going to, which is why they sound like minor arriving early. The fourth keeps almost nothing — and because it does not even contain your target note, it forces you to learn how to surround one instead of landing on it.

What's in the PDF

Eight pages, nothing padded

The four parents

All four spelled out in C, and the two decisions that generate every one of them.

The ladder

Four collections ordered by how far outside the key they take you — none, one note, two, then nearly all.

One position

All four dominant shapes on the neck, where fourteen notes are shared and only two move.

Four lines

One per scale, written out in tab, each ending on a different kind of target.

Ready when you are

Drop your email and the PDF is on its way. It's the guide I'd hand a student who knows the scales and still cannot get a line to land.