Target notes and pick-ups

Major Triad Workout

In the major triad workout, I left you eight bars where I just played the left-hand chords. I hope you improvised your own major scale ideas in there. You could also try:

• Major pentatonic
• Just the five-finger position

Either way, you may have noticed that some notes sound better than others. Let's call those notes target notes.

Understanding Target Notes

For instance, if you're playing A to D and using the A scale, when you play the D at the same time as the A chord, you get that clash we talked about earlier. That's clearly a poor target note.

The target note is usually on the first beat of a new chord, and you want to ensure that note belongs to the chord, in other words, it should be the root, third, or fifth.

Example: Root as a Target Note

Here's an example of using the root as a target note. I'll demonstrate this slowly with the metronome. I'll keep the rhythm going in my left hand and approach my target note from further back.

1. First, I'll do a one-note pickup:

   • 1, 2, 3 (root)

   Obviously, you can't go wrong with the root.

2. Now, I'll approach it from two notes back:

   • The A hasn't moved.

3. Now, three notes back.

This might seem quite obvious, but it gets more interesting when you start playing with eighth notes or add a note after the target note.

Adding Notes After the Target Note

There's no rule that says you have to stick around on the target note. Let's do the same thing but add some notes after we get to A. All this is based around A as a target note.

Of course, it doesn't have to be the root; it could be the fifth or the third. We could use eighth notes as pickups, which is what we're going to explore now.

Three-Note Pickup Example

I'm going to play a three-note pickup using A as my target note. Let's do it with a metronome, adding a note every couple of bars and going further back:

• Count like this: 1, 1, 2, 3, 4

You can see that it's really important to count. To get used to coming in at different places, you need to be on top of where that target note should come and where the one is. Your metronome is helping with the loud note or bell sound on the one.

Think about counting it like this:

• 2, 3, 1, 2

So the D chord is your one, and you're coming in at different places:

• 1, 2, 3
• 2, 3, 4
• 1, 2, 2
• 3, 4
• 1, 2, 2
• 1, 2, 3, 4
• 1

The last one comes in on the one. All of them end in the same place, which is a really good exercise. You could do this around the whole tune, changing keys, and trying out different pickups and target notes.

Syncopated Target Notes

Lastly, we're going to look at syncopated target notes. Instead of the target note falling on one, sometimes it's okay to play it a bit early, half a beat early. That would sound like this:

I'm going to use C sharp as my target note for A and approach it from four notes down. But I'm going to come in on three.

• Count: 1, 2, 3

Now, my target note is off the beat. You still need to know where the one is, and the left-hand chord is still going to play on one, of course. Nothing's changed there.

If you play around with these ideas, you'll get much better results improvising with the major scale rather than just playing random notes. That's what you're trying to avoid.