Blues Soloing Tricks: Livening Up the Pentatonic Box

1/7/2017
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Blues Soloing Tricks: Livening Up the Pentatonic Box

(http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/blues-soloingtricks-livening-up-the-pentatonic-box)
4/9/2016
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The Minor Pentatonic Box 1 was probably one of the first things you learned when you
started improvising on guitar, and its probably the most used shape/pattern in rock and
blues improvisation. It feels like home, its a safe, controllable place that can provide a
sturdy backbone to our blues and rock soloing, but it can get a little stale if you dont
make an effort to liven it up once in a while. In a previous blog post we looked at how to
always land on the right note (http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/blues-soloingtricks-how-to-always-land-on-the-right-notes) in this pentatonic box; in this one well
look at another easy-to-implement soloing trick that will breathe new life into a wellworn pattern.
Heres the most famous scale pattern on earth (E minor pentatonic):
As you probably know, over a 12 bar blues you can pretty much blow over it with this scale pattern, throwing in the flat 5, and some
tasty bends to the major third here and there.
What you can also do is take the chords from the progression (E7, A7 and B7), and wail on those. A lot of players tend to overlook this
as you dont usually play barre-type chords up at the twelfth fret and beyond but theyre there, and within easy reach of our scale
pattern.
Heres an E7 chord superimposed over the pattern:
As you can see, were only really adding one note to the scale, but dont play these chords in scalar fashion, use them as double stops,
play two notes off of each other, or chug on them Chuck Berry style.
Heres the A7 chord superimposed over the pattern:
http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/bluessoloingtricksliveningupthepentatonicbox
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In this one you might just want to use the top three notes of the chord to help with fingering. Remember to superimpose these chords
as the chords change for a greater effect.
Heres the B7 chord superimposed over the pattern:
Again, you might want to just use the top three notes of this superimposed chord to bring out the Chuck Berry type stuff.
A Little Theory
Whats really going on here is that youre adding the major third to the scale, which creates a different sound that it would if you bent
up to it from the minor third, or used it as a passing tone.
Once you can locate the chords within the pattern well, whip on your favorite backing track and try them out.
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU:
-Blues Soloing Tricks: How to Always Land on the Right Notes (http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/blues-soloing-tricks-howto-always-land-on-the-right-notes)
-Blues Soloing Tricks: Other Scales to Use in a Blues (http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/blues-soloing-tricks-other-scales-touse-in-a-blues)
-Blues Soloing Tricks: How Not to Run Out of Ideas (http://www.unlocktheguitar.net/blog/blues-soloing-tricks-how-not-to-runout-of-ideas)
Play like Allan Holdsworth
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1/7/2017

Blues Soloing Tricks: Livening Up the Pentatonic Box

Heres the most famous scale pattern on earth (E minor pentatonic):

Play like Allan Holdsworth

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