Advance
Pentatonic Lessons 6-10
Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 6
This is a “must know” lick to really
take it home when you start repeating yourself in a solo…err it’s time to
get out of the extended solo and end the song.
These solo vamp’ings will make more peoples feet tap than playing the
Hungarian Minor scale over your blues solo ;) If you want quality over
quantity…this lick is a dead-ringer.
This type of lick can be found on a ton of solos by Clapton, Page, Beck,
Berry
, Richards, and many others. It was also use a lot in Big Band music. You can
just hear the swinging horn section laying this one out to take the song home.
I can also be found or be used over Country,
Bluegrass
, and a few other styles of music.
The comp’ing chords for this MP3 are also listed. I included these to show
that all of the chord movement or voicing is coming from the lead part, and the
chords moving in the back are very “stripped down” chords…which are a lot
of the time the best type of comp’ing chords. Even with the two note chords
the piece sound very large. If bigger chords were used they may have sounded
cluddered…there would’ve been too many “blending” type of notes going on
;)
The chords consist of the Root and b7 of each of the x7 chords. And, the lead
does play a Root but not the b7. The lead is playing around the , 6/13, 4/11, 5,
b3, and M3. So the two parts together can creates the sounds of dominant , 6/13,
and 11 …as well as a dominant7 and minor7. There’s just a whole lot of
sounds blended together that make things sound large…the lead is an extension
of the backing chords.
Each lick in the chord MOVES the whole Super-imposed scale along to each new
chord. By moving the scale to the
appropriate root when the chord changes kind of makes every chord a root chord,
IOW the scale and chord moving together shift your whole focus from playing one
scale over all of the chords, to playing right on each individual chord with
it’s own individual scale.
Also notice the last three notes before the D9 chord. This is a classic Clapton,
Albert King, and SRV move (think Crossroads, Tribute to Elmore James, and
others) when it rolls right from the scale to the root note of the next chord,
IOW moving down the G Blues scale while on the G chord, but landing on the D
note of the next chord (D9). This confirms the idea of thinking of each chord on
their own as opposed to playing one scale over every chord. Think of it as
“good note decisions”. Even though the D note is in both the G scale and the
D scale, it’s the FOCUS of the notes moving to the chord then landing on a
note in the new chord that makes a very strong statement.
At this point you can see I am moving the scale each time I’m moving the
chord. Playing a G Blues scale does work great over all the chords, but you’ll
find that moving the Super-imposed scale to each chords root will make things
sound very lyrical, and more “in-the-pocket”…
…so make sure you can play the Super-imposed scale from any Root as we will be
doing this more and more throughout the lessons.
Audio
for Lesson 6
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Advance Pentatonic
Lesson 7
This is just a short little lick. I think of
this as something a horn, possibly sax, player would use to open a series of
licks. It makes a strong statement over a G, G7, or G9 chord.
I look at all of these notes as being basically out of the G Major Pentatonic
scale, except for the Bb on the G string and the F on the B string. I look at
these two notes as passing tones to bring us in the notes of the chord then into
the G Major Pentatonic scale. But, I also look at all of these as being from the
G Super-imposed scale.
You could also do the slide at the end as a bend and it would put you in
position for some mean straight up Blues Licks.
This is a great lick to start a solo with as it sets up a lyrical mood right off
the bat. You can also move this lick along with your chords. Meaning, in a I IV
V, move the lick along with the chord playing it in the 3rd fret area
like the example for the G chord, then move it to the 8th fret area
for C, and then the 10th fret area for the D chord. It’s a portable
lick.
One other thing, in contrast to the earlier lessons, is that this starts with
the b3 to M3 movement in the beginning of the lick. The pass lessons showed the
b3 to M3 movement at the end of each lick. So, the previous lessons help bring
you into the major chord, this one starts right off with the chord in mind.
Try it over rock, blues, jazz, and country.
Audio
for Lesson 7
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 8
Here’s a very short idea that we’re
going to build on for a couple of lesson and it will be a movement present in
quite a few of the upcoming lessons.
Notice the use of the chromatics on the G string. It goes back to the idea that,
yes it’s a chromatic group of notes, but if you just played it one chromatic
note after the other, it doesn’t say a whole lot. But, depending on how you
shift around the chromatics, they can say a lot.
The use of the b5 note from the blues scale gives it a nice rub and makes a nice
connection when playing the blues scale and shifting into the Major Pentatonic
scale. And, of course the b3 to M3 movement makes it sound like it’s coming
home.
You can build a lot of lick before and after this lick to make some great Gatton,
Morse, Albert Lee type licks, as
well as Clapton and Page inspired licks.
This lick primarily works for the G chord, but move this lick along with your
chords and you’ll see a nicely off center quirky feel as it moves to each new
chord…but it still sounds in the pocket.
Audio
for Lesson 8
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 9
This lick ends with the lick in Lesson #8.
It a Danny Gatton or Steve Morse type lick but is also very portable to Blues
and Rock and Roll music.
Essentially it starts in the Major Pentatonic sound but also continues down the
Blues scale and ends with the b3 to M3 movement.
And of course you can move it or use it when moving the chords.
Audio
for Lesson 9
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Advanced Pentatonic
Lesson 10
This lick again starts with the Major
Pentatonic sound then moves to the Blues sound.
The bend on the high E string is again the
bend that doesn’t bend to a particular note, just a slight bend.
The bending lick that ends it is a lick I copped from a few Hendrix and SRV
recordings. You bend the B string from F to G. As that’s bent you are also
bending the G string along with it just by bending the B string towards the G
string. Then, while the B string is bent use the finger behind your bending
finger to hop on the G string that is bend up and bring the G string bend back
down with the original bend, but only sounding the G string releasing.
Hope that makes sense. It’s a technique used by many blues players include
Buddy Guy, BB King, Freddie King, Clapton, and so many others. It’s just a
natural thing that probably came out of a mistake made when trying to hit the B
string and releasing it but you hit the G string instead.
Audio
for Lesson 10
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