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Chopin Etude
Chopin reinvented the Etude, expanding on the idea and making it eloquent and emotional.
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Pentatonic Madness
(20 Jan 03)
Licks, Licks, Licks !
But let's see how we can create some cool, unsual sounds and "shred" using the pentatonic scale. Our first example is based on a simple exercise I was taught at the GIT... playing through the scale skipping notes, playing fourths.
Look at the TAB:
We're in the key of A Minor / C Major, using pattern 3... the minor pentatonic goes: A-C-D-E-G-A
If you look at the notes in the lick, we're playing A-D-C-E-D-G etc... so we're skipping one interval and then start over on the one we skipped, etc.
If you'd number the scale degrees ( 1-2-3-4-5 ), our sequence would be 1-3-2-4-3-5-4-6 etc. I guess it's easier to understand if you grab your guitar and play the lick. So do so NOW! By the way, this one makes for a neat exercise too!
The next lick is the descending version of the first lick.
If you practise these two a while, you might be able to really speed it up, and you will see what a cool sound you get that way.
The next lick is similar (or shall I say identical) to one of the licks I showed you in my Greg Howe-Profile. It uses Greg's "barring technique", using the ring finger or pinkie to bar two notes at the same fret to speed up a bit. The key here is G Major... check out the lick:
If you need more details on that technique, check out my article about Greg...
The lick sounds kinda similar to our first exercise... you skip a note of the scale, therefore you kinda lose that typical pentatonic sound.
It's a bit more difficult to descend that thing... but it's possible, and here is how that goes, same key:
OK, now let's check out some other stuff. One player who really turned me on the pentatonic scale and the cool stuff you can do with it was Paul Gilbert. Here's one of his trademark licks, derived from his live-solo on Mr Big's "Live: Raw Like Sushi II" record:
This one requires some practising, but once you get used to the pattern (the first 8 note), it should be easy to use it in different keys and pentatonic patterns. Pay attention to the indicators of which note is hammered on / pulled off, and try to keep all notes at a equal volume... unless you wanna accent some notes on purpose.
Now, let's move that same sequence through the whole pattern... pattern III in the key of E Major...
Again, this is nothing but that basic 8 note-sequence moved through the pattern. Once you reach the high E-string, why dont'cha use another cool PG-lick to get down to the low-E-string again. I.e. this one:
That one is based on one of the typical sequences I showed to you in my previous articles. You go down 2 notes from the starting note (i.e. E-C#-B), then skip back to the second note (C#) and go down two from there (C#-B-G#), skip back to the B etc. Again, it might be easier to understand the sequence if you play through it, so GO AHEAD!
Paul played another cool lick right at the beginning of that aforementioned guitar solo. It uses a sequence similar to the previous one, and also is in the key of E Major. Two differences though: we use a different pattern (No.1) and we throw in the note D, which is actually not part of the scale, but adds a "bit of dirt" to the lick. Check it out:
Again, it might take a while to get used to the sequence and the stretches involved, but once you can nail it, it's fun to do that one!
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Spicing it up >> |
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