pentatonic noodling

Hi,

Day 1 on guitartricks!

So I have been playing for 15 (plus) years now and decided I really am not as good as I should be if I had applied myself properly. Always playing in originals bands (mainly rock and metal) I have never really needed to rely on knowing scales etc to do what I have needed to do. Now I feel its time as I am now a lead guitarist in a covers band and need to up my lead game. I know I have the speed and general technique although I am crap at working my way around the fingerboard in blues-esque jams and always stick to 'position 1' of the pentatonic scale.

I do know all 5 positions and have for a long time but its about bloody time I started linking and mastering the pentatonic , which I feel is a good place to start with proper general lead playing(unless I am advised otherise)

In short, I want to know if anybody can point me in the right direction to a series that will get me linkings positions and using licks within positions and generally get me started in the right direction.

I appreciate any input!

Hey & welcome to GT!

Originally Posted by: luke.hobbs86
In short, I want to know if anybody can point me in the right direction to a series that will get me linkings positions and using licks within positions and generally get me started in the right direction.

I have a while series of tutorials on the pentatonic scale.

Basic theory & practice.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=296
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=722
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=185

Connecting the pentatonic boxes.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=737
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=843
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=914
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=1277

Using the pentatonic boxes as a basic visual guide to improvisation.

https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=483
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=491
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=217
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=232
https://www.guitartricks.com/tutorial.php?input=244

The Rock course will give you lots of general instruction in the art of lead playing. Anders does a great job! Since you already play you might already know a lot of the material, but it's always a good idea to take a refresher & review material you thought you already knew in order to gain a more thorough understanding or a new perspective.

https://www.guitartricks.com/course.php?input=rock2

Chapters 2 & 4 focus a lot on lead playing. Feel free to skim through until something new or interesting comes up. Hope this helps! Best of success!

Thanks CSchlegel!

Let the practising commence!

Another think that you can do is meandering through all boxes with. A metronome......

Just another nugget of wisdom I received from a great player a number of years ago regarding pentatonic, "90% of rock guitar solos are based on the pentatonic scale. Know that and you have the majority of what you need licked." (paraphrased...obviously...)

This was someone I talked to quite a bit and he had great bits of wisdom. When we would talk about it, he would often say that guitar is like a language and you should learn it like a language. There are some fairly standard blues licks (this site an a good few lesson for them). This is the 'language' of the blues.

You mentioned that you are 'crap at working my way around the fingerboard in blues-esque jams and always stick to 'position 1' of the pentatonic scale.'

Learn the licks. Listen to Lynyrd Skynyrd on most any song but Freebird is a lesson on blues licks. Southern Rock uses lots of these little licks and tricks. AC/DC and Angus Young, the same thing. Lots of tasty little licks that a strung together.

So many players don't spend time learning other players music and I think this is a big mistake. It is a big mistake I made for a long time. It really affected my ability to play. I was lazy in some ways when I practiced. As time went on and I got much more serious, I crippled myself by not taking advantage of the stuff others did before me.

When you learn the licks and apply them to the songs of others, you start to see trends and patterns used by other players and this helps you have those 'a-ha' moments in playing.

My two pennies...and definitely follow the links Chris gave. :)

cheers JeffS65.

This makes a lot of sense. This is in fact the first covers band I have been in and therefore the first time I have been forced into learning songs. In learning songs alone I have noticed a vast improvement in my playing.

Luckily for me, Skynyrd and ACDC happen to be 2 of my favourite bands, closely behind Queen, so your suggestion of learning their licks will be a great helps.

Thanks for the advice. Its great to have another viewpoint and its certainly one that I will use!

Learning all the notes on the fretboard will change your playing dramatically...And I think you wouldn't have such a problem....

The pentatonic scale has 5 notes...all five box shapes have the same 5 notes as box 1. There's so many ways to learn it..for me I started with all the natural notes,learning one at on all six strings.one note per week.

Certainly moving out of box 1 of the pents can help. I found it helpful to extend what I was comfortable with. On the B and E strings, find the pent notes up a couple of frets and on the E and A strings, find the pent notes down a couple of frets. In the middle, find how you can slide up to the next shape, or down. Once you learn how to connect the shapes up and down the neck you can really unlock your playing.

However, something that really struck me when I started here was that Anders would play in position using a single pent shape in his blues lessons here. He would play some really awesome stuff...staying in that one position. It demonstrated to me that I needed to learn to use what I knew already better...not more shapes or scales.

I found it to be a real combination of both that helped me "get it". I thought learning all the shapes and knowing all the notes on the fret broad would just make my playing better. I found that wasn't really the case, and that I needed to spend time working on my phrasing and personal lick library. The combination of those two thing however was huge.

Let's face it we are dealing with a 5 not scale, how hard can that be right? (j/k) But we know a ton of great riffs have been played with just that 5 note scale. You can learn and make up a ton of great stuff with just those 5 notes. I still find it easy and comfortable to noodle and create in shape one.

Where I think knowing all the boxes and notes on the fret broad did pay off big for me is once I had a lick I liked I could then easily move it to any other box pattern on the neck. So take some of those great licks it was mentioned Anders teaches, once I learned them, I was able to play them anywhere on the neck in any key because I did know all the box shapes and notes on the fretboard.

Example lets say I'm in the key of A playing the 5 chord (E) using the 6th string bar chord at the 12th fret. Now when I want to play a fill from the A minor pentatonic scale I just play there in 12th position unlike previously (before I learned all the shapes and notes) I would have to shift back to 5th position and that one pattern I knew. Knowing all the positions and notes has saved me a lot of time and mistakes I use to make having to shift position to the few shapes I knew. Know I just play the same riff where my hands already are, it has made me a lot more relaxed when playing and my playing a lot cleaner.

Originally Posted by: maggiorIt demonstrated to me that I needed to learn to use what I knew already better...not more shapes or scales.[/QUOTE]
Well said!
[quote=SJWeissen]
I found it to be a real combination of both that helped me "get it". I thought learning all the shapes and knowing all the notes on the fret broad would just make my playing better. I found that wasn't really the case, and that I needed to spend time working on my phrasing and personal lick library. The combination of those two thing however was huge.

Another great observation! Thanks for these great replies guys. :)