For an R&B guitar solo over a tune like Just the Two of Us, find the key center first. Its five chords all sit in one key center, F minor, so F minor pentatonic works over the whole progression. Then build the solo with restrictions: one box, one string, the blues note, upbeats, double stops and chromatics.
Just the Two of Us is a beautiful song, and it’s a great song to understand. In this video we challenge each other on what to solo and how to solo over it, one restriction at a time, and this post walks through each one.
What scale works over Just the Two of Us?
F minor pentatonic. The song moves through five chords, but they all sit in one key center, F minor.
Five chords can feel like a lot, but this is the moment where harmony and theory really interact with music. They always interact, but here it’s very useful to understand what’s happening:
- D flat major 7. The flat 6, which is the sixth degree in a minor key.
- C7. The fifth degree, going to the one.
- F minor 7. The one.
- E flat minor 7 to A flat 7. A little ii-V, a little tension zone, leading us back to the flat 6.
That means we can shred F minor pentatonic over all of it: F, A flat, B flat, C, E flat. If the pentatonic shapes aren’t solid yet, the pentatonic scale lesson gets all five positions under your fingers.
Challenges 1 and 2: one box, then one string
Start in one box of F minor pentatonic and nothing else. Then take the slide: play the solo on one string only.
The first challenge is no chromatics and no other higher position, just that one box. Even with one simple idea, the box of F minor pentatonic, you can still make a lot of music.
The second challenge is to slide with your hand, staying on one string. It sounds so good, and it’s interesting, because the player knows F minor pentatonic, and he’s not only a great musician, he’s also able to see the scale on the string. He could do it because he really practiced the framework in different ways. If I asked him to do it on a different string, I know he could.
Whenever we have restrictions, we actually expand our box and learn a lot about music.
Rotem Sivan
Challenges 3 and 4: the blues note in every phrase, then upbeats
Use the blues note in every phrase you play, not just once in a while. Then syncopate: lots of upbeats.
The blues note is the flat 5. In F minor pentatonic that’s B natural (or C flat), squeezed between B flat and C. The blues scale lesson goes deeper into the scale that note comes from.
The fourth restriction is rhythm. The challenge is to syncopate, with a lot of upbeats. The point made in the video is that the pentatonic and all this stuff is great, but it’s only happening when the rhythms are happening.
Challenge 5: how do you play pentatonic double stops?
Stay in the same position of the pentatonic and group it in two notes at a time. By this point we’d played a lot of single-note stuff, so this one asks for two notes at a time.
It’s very simple. Pair each pentatonic note with the one two steps up the scale and you only get 3rds and 4ths. In F minor pentatonic, F with B flat, B flat with E flat, C with F and E flat with A flat are all 4ths, and A flat with C is a major 3rd. Of course you can play other intervals too, like 5ths, but that’s the simple version, and it sounds great.
If you want to build these moves on purpose, Simple Tasteful Soloing takes one line in A minor pentatonic and breaks it into its building blocks, bends, blue notes, subdivisions, double stops and singing, then gives you a simple five-element way to turn it into a solo.
Challenge 6: add chromatics and keep the pentatonic sound
Stay in F minor pentatonic, but now you’re allowed to fill the gaps between its notes with chromatic notes. As long as you keep targeting the pentatonic notes, it still sounds like the pentatonic.
Look at the first box again. F minor pentatonic leaves gaps between its notes. Besides the blues note, you can add everything in between the notes of the pentatonic, like the major 3rd (A), the flat 9 (G flat) and the major 7 (E). Instead of going from the flat 3 to the 1, you fill in the notes between them.
You get a lot of chromatic notes, but the solo still sounds like the pentatonic because you land on the pentatonic notes. The last round in the video has no restriction at all: just do whatever you want.
Practice idea: one restriction per chorus
Loop the five chords, D flat major 7, C7, F minor 7, E flat minor 7, A flat 7, at a slow tempo. Take one chorus per challenge, in order:
- One box. F minor pentatonic in one position, no chromatics.
- One string. Slide the same notes along a single string.
- Blues note. The flat 5 in every phrase.
- Upbeats. Syncopate everything.
- Double stops. 3rds and 4ths from the box.
- Chromatics. Fill the gaps, land on pentatonic notes.
Then play one last chorus with no rules. For a few ready-made phrases to start from, grab the 5 Licks Cheat Sheet, a free PDF of five licks that work over any blues or rock track.
Frequently asked questions
What scale do you use for a solo over Just the Two of Us?
F minor pentatonic: F, A flat, B flat, C and E flat. All five chords of the song sit in one key center, F minor, so that one scale works over the whole progression, starting in a single box.
What are the chords to Just the Two of Us?
D flat major 7, C7, F minor 7, then E flat minor 7 and A flat 7. In F minor, D flat is the flat 6, C7 is the five going to the one, and the E flat minor 7 to A flat 7 is a little ii-V back to D flat.
What’s the blues note in F minor pentatonic?
The flat 5, which is B natural (or C flat), between B flat and C. One of the challenges in the video is to use it in every phrase you play, not just once in a while.
How do you add chromatic notes to the pentatonic?
Fill the gaps between the pentatonic notes, for example the major 3rd, flat 9 or major 7 alongside the blues note, and keep landing on pentatonic notes. You get a lot of chromatic notes, but the line still sounds like the pentatonic.
Put the song on, pick one restriction, and stay with it until it stops feeling like a restriction.
