COMPOSING IDEAS

- Zillio: Take minor pentatonic and add perfect fifth to every note. With one exception, all
these are in the pentatonic scale, and the one that is not still works pretty well with the
minor pentatonic.
o Now you can use this to embellish your licks
o You can also slide up/down the pentatonic scale on a single string and add fifths for
a nice effect.
- Take a three note arpeggio and play it with FOUR notes per beat, so the phrase changes
each time (the starting note is different each time). Now apply this concept in other areas,
for example take a scale sequence using three notes, and play with four notes per beat. You
can also do this the opposite way – take a four note sequence and play it as three notes per
beat sequence.
o Also other numbers are possible
- In blues, the main character of the 7th chords lies in TRITONE interval between the 3rd and
the 7th of the chords. So, we can substitute any of these chords of a blues progression for a
nice , jazzy sounding tritones. Tritones are very easy to play, as the second note is one fret
higher one string lower. Even better is the bass player plays the bass. BUT: you can add bass
to your tritones also, and it sounds great!
o You can also add 6th degree to your tritones for extra nice flavour!
o Try adding other notes for other flavours! Try different strings!
o Formula: tritone+bass+extra note
o TRITONE IS AN INVERSE OF ITSELF – SO YOU CAN INVERT IT USING EXACTLY THE
SAME SHAPE! SO: for example A7 chord with bass and triton becomes Eb7 chord if
we invert the tritone and add the appropriate bass – E note. So, now we have a lot
of freedom. We can substitute chords now. The rule for the substitution is – take a
chord with a tritone and substitute it for a chord with the root a TRITONE apart (e.g.
A and Eb are a tritone apart). This is easy on the fretboard because tritones are so
close. So, e.g. A7 (fingering E5, D5, G6) becomes Eb7 (fingering A6 D5 G6) – only one
note/string change.
- Finding new chords
o Use bottom four strings
o Choose a scale, e.g. minor
o Put your fingers one finger on each of the four strings
o Make adjustment left or right on each string so that all notes are from the scale
o Now you have a random chord
o Sequence the chord by moving each note up the fret but staying within the scale (so
move half or full step as appropriate)
o Choose some of these chords to create progressions
- PREVENTING PENTATONIC MONOTONY
o Take a simple 3-4 note motif.
 Now analyse it – e.g. starting note, then down two notes in the scale and up
one note in the scale.
 Now you can make changes – keep the two notes down one note up but
start on the middle note, or other note
  You can also reverse it – go up two notes and down one.
- USING PENTATONIC SCALE
o In A minor you can also play Eminor pentatonic, since it only has B instead of C, and
that note is a part of Aminor anyway. But do not jump between positions, stay in
one position, e.g. A minor and lower the Cs to Bs. Alternate between the two sounds
when soloing. The rule for this scale substitution is SEVEN FRETS higher (e.g. a to e is
seven frets).
o MINOR PENTATONIC over BLUES PROGRESSION is actually dissonant – e.g. in Amin
the C note of the scale clashes with the C# of the A7 chord.
 Solutions
 You can bend the c slightly just to keep it alive and moving so that
the clash never has a chance to establish in the listener’s ears
 You can change the c of the scale to c#.

- Petrucci – one guitar plays heavy distorted power chord progression, another guitar clean
over it adds other notes to add tension and drama – the 9th, 11th, sus2s and sus 4s etc.