Chromatic Connections: How to Make the Spaces Between Chord Tones a Source of Color and Momentum

If you’re looking for fun and interesting melody lines to include in your solos, the chords in the song can show you a clear path. Drawing a line between two chord tones can create melodic embellishments and add a touch of sophisticated tension. Chromatic approaches take off like a balance beam routine—wobbling through unexpected notes before landing squarely on the target in a satisfying resolution.

Visual artists think of the word chromatic as relating to a variety of colors. In music, it means half steps. Guitarists can recognize chromatic intervals as being just one fret apart—it takes two frets to make a whole step. This workout will show you how to move from one good note to another using a few cool-sounding “wrong” notes along the way.

Week One

First, a bit of theory. A major triad is a chord made up of the first, third, and fifth notes of a major scale: 1–3–5. The D chord has the notes D, F#, and A in order of the D major scale. On the guitar, we often first learn the D chord that looks like a triangle. It’s OK that the notes are not in order of appearance in the scale, as long as they are in there somewhere. 

In Example 1, we are playing A–D–F#, or 5–1–3 after the open D in the bass. The first-string F# is on the same string as the next chord tone, A. The chromatic route between the third and the fifth is F#–G–G#–A, as shown. Play the four notes as quarter notes in common time for now. 

Staying with this D chord, the note on the second string, D, chromatically connects to the next chord tone, F#, with a total of five notes (D, D#, E, F, and F#). We’ll skip the half step between D and E this time to play four notes: D, E, F, and F# (Example 2). 

On the third string, to get from A to D we have a few choices, all good. There are six notes on this path: A–A#–B–C–C#–D. To keep it at four-to-the-bar, Example 3 shows four possibilities. In the context of your solo, your taste, the feel of the song and chord progression, each of the four versions offers a slightly different vibe. The fourth option sounds like a typical country bass line: A–B–C#–D. That is simply the diatonic scale from 5 to 1 that sounds like sol–la–ti–do. While this is a lesson about chromatic lines and not so much about straight-up major scales, it’s worth noticing that half step between C# and D. 

Beginners’ Tip #1
Chords can be excellent note teachers. Identify the notes in all the chord forms you play. Counting from the open string and knowing that every fret is a half step, you can name every note. 

That’s the end of week one. The complete lesson features four weeks of workouts (plus a bonus exercise.) There are two ways to access the full video and musical examples: Join our community at Patreon.com/acousticguitarplus (the full lesson is available here) OR Buy the November/December 2025 issue at store.AcousticGuitar.com

This article originally appeared in the November/December 2025 issue of Acoustic Guitar magazine.