Advanced Pentatonic Lessons 1-5

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Advanced Pentatonic Lessons 1-5

Advanced Pentatonic Lesson 1

Lets take a look at the scales Ive been talking about. Pentatonic Of or using only ve tones You can consider Pentatonic a scale with ve notes for this subject matter. The Blues Scale is essentially the Minor Pentatonic Scale with a b5 added in. A good percentage of the time they are both considered the same scale, in general terms. Even though the Blues scale has 6 notes in it, its quite frequently termed as one of the Pentatonic scalesmaybe not in books but in real live conversation. The Red Dot in the diagram is the Root note of the scale. If you play from Root to Root, you have played an Octave. And if you notice, these scales encompass two octave and then some, moving into the third octave (Root to Root to Root). Each of these scales has the Root note of G. Each of them has the lowest Root at the 3rd fret of the E string. Making them the particular G scale. You can see how the rst two scales differ when they are next to each other. The only common notes between the Blues and the Major Pentatonic are the Root and 5th (G and D respectively). So, there isnt a lot in common between them at this point. Now when you look at the Super-Imposed scale you can see these scale grow immediately. You can see chromatic notes, and notes that run parallel to each other, and three note on a string formations, AND chords (Ill get into the chords in the next lesson). Play a G chord and play each of these scales individually. The Blues and the Pentatonic will sound acceptable, but the Super-imposed wont as much. But, play that Super-Imposed scale over and over against the G chord very slowly to the point where the note you are playing harmonizes against the chord. Youll nd that each of the notes adds dimension to the chord, some better than others for sure, but doing this is where you nd the notes that are, lets say, safe to end on or give the sound its most direct vision. Some notes blend in with the chord, some notes color the chord, and some notes sound displaced against the chord. These are the things to start listening for. Its good to notice these things as:

1. if you want a kind of comp'ing lead line that doesnt stray from the chord too much, the blending notes will work, as in a funky or rhythm-type line the falls in with the rest of the rhythm section but doesnt stand out.

2. if you want a bigger sound against the chord, like your extending it, you can use the notes that color the

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Advanced Pentatonic Lessons 1-5

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chord.

3. if you want tension, use the notes that rub the chord badly. Maybe use it as a starting note that moves in the direction of one of the blending or colorful notes.

These are all important things to pay attention to and to listen. It will make you as familiar with the sound of the notes, and what they are doing, just as much as you are with the ngerings/patterns.

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Advanced Pentatonic Lesson 2

In the diagram below we can see that within the Blues and the Major Pentatonic scales that a Minor chord and a Major chord, respectively, are found. Again, these are not just formations or ngering but two distinct sounds, Minor and Major. Two very strong sounds on their own and they dont blend when played together very well. But With these two sounds we can build one of the foundations of the sound of the Super-Imposed scale .the Minor to Major movement.

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Advanced Pentatonic Lesson 3

The Minor to Major movement mentioned in the last post is a very dened sound in western-ised music. Play a G Major chordnow play a G Minor chord that moves directly into the G Major chord. You will here that chord coming home to the Major sound. The MP3 is an example of this idea. This is in a country-type vein, but it shows you how strong the sound is. Its just a straight Open G chord playing along with the drums, with a second guitar doing the rhythm/lead part presented in the tab.

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Advanced Pentatonic Lesson 4

In this lesson we are going to look at something I tend to call simulation or variation. Im sure a lot of you have done this when replacing a bend with a slide, or visa-versa, but keeping the notes the same. So, the lick stays in place but the techniques use to do it changes. The MP3 and tab below is kind of a SRV style idea. Its based on kind of a shufe riff. But, it shows the

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Advanced Pentatonic Lessons 1-5

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simulation quite well where the same lick can be played in different ways. In the tab notice the rst bend doesnt really indicate what note the Bb is getting bent to. Its basically a slight bend that gives the notion that the b3 is getting bent towards the M3 (IOW Bb to B), regardless if it gets all the way to B or not. But, in the part following it we are actually sounding the M3. So, it sounds the same basically and these to ways are simulations or variations of each other. Just for the recordI used my thumb for the G note on the Low string. With my left hand I also try to mute every string thats not being played, this way I can rake the pick across all of the strings and give it that loose groove sound. This is a technique, the thumb, muting, and raking, used by just about every blues guitarist to get the groove owing. Just let the picking hand act as if its strumming but playing single-notes as opposed to chords. Then mute the other string that shouldnt ring out by using your left-hand in a lazy manner. Just left your left hand kind of lay across the strings.Think Lazy. Although the technique is not the focus here. So, dont worry so much about the Low G, focus more on the G and D strings, this is where we can see its being played out of the Blues scale AND the Major Pentatonic scaleor the Super-Imposed scale. This is the focus for the lesson.

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Advanced Pentatonic Lesson 5

This lesson will show more variation. It will also show a common box pattern found in the Super-Imposed scale. This is essentially the same lick as Lesson 4 was, except it uses some parallel notes found in the Super-Imposed scale along with our original notes. These parallel notes make up the box pattern. Its along the lines of SRV again where he makes the guitar jingle-jangle a little bit. It sounds like lead but it also sounds like chords, it sounds in the pocket, and sets up a nice groove. Its sounds more musical then lick-based.

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