Advanced
Pentatonics Lessons 36-40
Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 36
This example takes the little idea from
Lesson 35 and changes it just a bit but adds on quite a bit.
It’s basically out of a I-IV-V Rock type progression in the key of E, or E7 I
like to think. And, it really displays the idea of moving your scale along with
the chord you are playing. Doing this seems to make everything groove and seem
to be in the pocket.
We’re playing E Super-Imposed for the E chord, and A Super-Imposed for the A
chord.
As far as playing the chords and the licks, keep your fretting hand real sloppy
so it mutes/covers the unwanted strings from ringing, and kind of use a slapping
motion with your picking hand. Think of the picking hand as almost strumming,
kind of how SRV plays flurries of notes. In other words, don’t be concerned
about the “precision” of your picking but more of just getting the groove
going and making it flow.
This is some old-school rockin’ riff.
Audio
for Lesson 36
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 37
These are some sweet little bending
pedal-steel licks.
They basically spell out a Dominant 7 chord. The audio plays the standard lick
in G slowly. Then It kicks into a I7-IV7-V7 progression moving the lick with
each chord. And notice the last lick over D7 uses a double-stop to bend a D7
sound into a straight D major sound/chord.
The primary lick consists of the 3rd of each chord played on the B
string, the 7th of each chord played on the G string and bending to
the Root and releasing to the 7th again, and the 3rd
bending to an 11th and releasing back to a 3rd on the D
string.
I play this with my 4th finger on the B string, my 2nd
finger on the G string, and my 1st finger on the D string.
Audio
for Lesson 37
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Advanced Pentatoni
c Lesson 38
This is a very common country lick for
guitarist wanting to simulate the pedal-steel guitar. It goes a bit further than
the common “Southern Rock” type bends. You can find it in stuff by Ricky
Skaggs, Pete Anderson, Albert Lee, and other chicken pickin’ masters.
It’s essentially bending into different chord tones along the over the G7
chord.
For the record the chord tones are: 9 to 3rd and 5, then the 11 to 5
and b7, then the 5 to 6/13 and Root, and then the b7 to Root and 3rd,
respectively.
I use this type of thing to move from one area of the fretboard to another area.
It links things together quite nicely.
Audio
for Lesson 38
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 39
This is a strange twist on the oblique
bends, ala pedal-steel. But, it covers more of a register of tones. Kind of in
the fashion of Jerry Donahue, but no where near his extremes ;)
Jerry bends many, sometime 3 and 4, notes simultaneously in different directions
and bent to different intervals to bend chords into other chords, or to extend
chords. If you haven’t heard this guy you ought to take the time. He’s like
a circus attraction or something it’s so out of this world.
Anyways this is nothing directly from him but a snipet of something he kind of
does. It’s taking chord tones from a Minor 7 chord (the b7 and b3 low to high
respectively) and bending them simultaneously, and at different intervals, into
tones in the chord (the Root and M3 low to high respectively).
You should be able to see that the low E string bends a whole-step from the b7
to the Root, and the G string bends from the b3 a half-step to the
M3…simultaneously.
And this lick gets moved through the I-IV-V progression so you can hear the
chords moving by playing a lick instead of the old full figured chords.
If you start looking at other notes around your chords, you can start bending
clusters of notes into your chord, or to extend your chord. This is a very deep
subject, to get the full jest of it I suggest looking up Jerry Donahue at Goolge
and start checking out some of his hair-brained licks.
Audio
for Lesson 39
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 40
In my early days of doing “hired gun”
gigs, the country ones were the most fun. They completely took me off my game
and made me rethink what I was doing. Nowadays I can get along pretty good
playing country but would not do a complete country “gig” anymore. But, I
still listen to a lot of the great chicken pickers out there.
Of all the “cover” country playing I did the one lick I’ve retained the
most is the solo from Guitars and Cadillac’s by Dwight Yokum. The guitarist
and producer for Dwight was a guy named Pete Anderson. Pete has one of the
coolest styles that really digs in, and “pinches and pulls” those strings.
This is what I’ve retained from that solo. It’s probably still pretty close
to the original but may have varied from the original a bit. But this is it, as
intact as I do it today.
If you’re into chicken pickin’ do not skip the Guitars and Cadillac’s
album from Dwight. Pete’s trademark playing is all over that album and should
be interesting to just about any guitarist.
This one really sings and stays right in the pocket.
Audio
for Lesson 40
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