Stretch It !
(26 Jun 02)
Construction and first licks
Architecture of the stretch-pentatonic
Well, itīs really easy to understand the concept of the stretch-pentatonic. The idea is to play the pentatonic scale using three notes on each string. Be aware though, that requires some wide stretches of the left hand, especially in the lower areas of the neck, so make sure you are properly warmed up before working on that.
Letīs take an example in the upper areas of the neck. To keep it simple, letīs use the E Minor-Pentatonic Scale.
E-G-A-B-D-E
Now, start at the 12th fret ( low E-String ) and play 3 notes on each string...
Hold on ! Once you get to the A at the 12th fret of the A-string, youīll notice that there is a note-repetition ( 17th fret, low E-String and 12th fret A-String ). You can use that to create some cool effects ( Iīll give you an exmple of that later ), but right now we gotta adjust to that by avoiding these repetitions. That is done by playing three notes on one string, 1 on the next, then three again, etc.
Look at example 1, the E Minor Scale, once ascending, then descending in another pattern:
One thing you should remember: there are bunches of different patterns for this scale... itīs up to you to decide how to play it, like eg. playing 3 notes on the low E-String, 1 on the A-string, 3 on the D-String etc., OR 1 on the E-String, 3 on A, 1 on D etc.
Get the idea ?
Well, you could just take a sheet of paper and draw some of the patterns based on the E-Minor Scale, using different approaches as described above...
OK, before we get to the fun part ( string skipping etc. ), I wanted to show you one example of a cool effect you can create with the note repetition I mentioned ( when playing the stretch pentatonic on two adjacent strings, three note per string ).
Here is a short example from a solo of my song "Cab To Queens". The Key is G minor, and I am playing at the 10th, 12th and 15th fret of both D- and G-String... here is the actual lick:
Hear a short MP3-Excerpt from "Cab To Queens", featuring Example 2
Fun, ainīt it ? OK, letīs quit repeating notes now, and letīs go on to the difficult ( but exciting ! ) examples...
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