*cyberfret.com: college of guitar wisdom - Home click here*


    *Classic Internet Guitar Lessons*

These lessons have been floating around the web for years and were not
written by the cyberfret staff. Therefore they are offered AS IS with no
warranty, no money back guarantee, no technical support, no ads, and no
pretty background (just plain gray and text, the way it was back in the
old days, *AND WE LIKED IT*) The author of the material is at the top of
each lesson. This is part of the history of guitar lessons on the
Internet...

 

From: dirk@telecom.ptt.nl
Subject: LESSON: pentatonic solo playing
Date: Thu, 2 Nov 1995 16:24:29 +0100 (MET)

> Title : LESSON: pentatonic solo playing
> Author: Dirk Jetten (D.Jetten@telecom.ptt.nl)


We're gonna play solo on this progression :
( 4 beats in every  |       | )

| Gmaj7        | Cmaj7        | Gmaj7        | %            |
| Cmaj7        | %            | Gmaj7        | %            |
| D7           | Cmaj7        | Gmaj7  Cmaj7 | Gmaj7   D7   |

Over this nice jazzy blues you can play in G major, and stay
within the scale the whole time. 

e.g. :
     G    A    B    C    D    E    F#   G

E |---------------------------0----2----3--------------------
B |------------0----1----3-----------------------------------
G |--0----2--------------------------------------------------
D |----------------------------------------------------------
A |----------------------------------------------------------
E |----------------------------------------------------------

It is also possible to play E minor pentatonic, A minor penta-
tonic and B minor pentatonic on the same progression. This is
because of the notest that make up these scales :

E minor pentatonic : E  G  A  B  D  E 
A minor pentatonic : A  C  D  E  G  A 
B minor pentatonic : B  D  E  F# A  B 

You can see that none of the notes in above scales are "wrong"
( sound dissonant ). Of course there is no such thing as
"wrong" or "right", dissonants can be very nice sometimes.

Tip : careful though with bending ! And try to put the empha-
sis on other notes that you're used to when playing "normal"
one-scale blues licks. 

LAB 1 :
-------
Record the progression in a slow tempo, and try which scales
fit best on which chords. Also try these :
A minor pentatonic on the Cmaj7 and D7 chords
B minor pentatonic on the Gmaj7 and D7 chords

Now for the position, that is, at which fret your left hand is
located ( right-hand players ). You can slide this fingering

e.g. A minor pentatonic :

E |---------------------------------------------5-----8------
B |----------------------------------5----8------------------
G |-------------------------5---7----------------------------
D |-----------------5---7------------------------------------
A |---------5---7--------------------------------------------
E |-5---8----------------------------------------------------

up 2 frets to get B minor pentatonic and down 5 frets for
E minor pentatonic.

LAB 2 :
-------

Find out, at a fixed fret position, how to play all three
scales. Then you are able to switch scales faster.

Have fun,

Dirk


*back to the Classic Internet Guitar Lesson Index click here*