5 Simple Hacks... To Master The Pentatonic

in this video we're going to take the classic minor pentatonic box which some people wrongly think is just for beginners and look at five simple ways you can use it to really level up your soloing [Music] [Applause] [Music] thank you [Music] so I see a lot of comments from people who seemingly know a few scales a few different positions but they're still pretty unsure exactly what they're supposed to be doing with all that information so here I want to Zone in on just one position one shape and see how we can really use it to make actual music so we're in the key of C sharp minor the same as E major and our first position pentatonic shape is going to start here at the ninth fret like this [Music] now let's get into our first technique double stops foreign [Music] stops is just a fancy way of saying playing two notes at once and there's a few ways we can do this easily within this pentatonic shape so let's start by looking at some hammer on double stops so here on the G string we could pick up the ninth and then hammer on to the 11th sounds nice enough but it's a bit basic so to make this sound a bit more sophisticated what we can do is play a double stop by including the B string as well when we pick the ninth fret and then hammer on up to the 11th only on the G and suddenly this little hammer on takes on a much more sophisticated sound so we can hammer on and pull off again [Music] plays little licks like that with it and also what we can do now is use the same technique coming down all these three strings which we've got a two fret Gap within our pattern so G and B together how into 11 and off again and then D and G together exactly the same and a and d together foreign so in that little solo at the beginning you saw me open up with a riff something like this [Music] making use of all those hammer on double stops then let's look at some sliding double stops so we're here at the ninth fret on the d and g strings playing these two notes together with a little bar on our first finger and then slide up two Frets to the eleventh and then back down again a really nice bright sound now we can move this whole thing down a string to the A and D strings together and do exactly the same combining those two strings with those two strings a really really nice sound which I love to use a lot [Music] [Applause] [Music] our second technique is what I call Bend and repeat so there's a few places in this pentatonic shape where you can bend up to a note on one string and then find that exact same note on the string above for example here at the 11th fret on the G string we can bend up a full step from F sharp up to G sharp but then we also find the G sharp here at the ninth fret on the B string so we've got the same note then here and unbent here now this creates a really cool sound and it's really useful for certain Styles particularly that whole Chuck Berry thing now that same thing happens here at the 12th fret of the B string where we can bend up a full step again to a C sharp we'll then find another C sharp here ninth fret on the high e get that kind of sound but I used it hopefully a bit more subtly in that Solo in the intro [Applause] [Music] on to number three and let's look at a couple of extra sweet notes that fall within our box but transform this pentatonic into the full minor scale Now using the four minor or major scale gives a bit of a sweeter sound than just the pentatonic and there's a couple of really easy places that we can find those missing notes the first one being here this D sharp at the 11th fret on the high e so we've already got the notes at the ninth and the 12th so we can just slip this one in at the 11th in between one way I really like to use this note is as a little half step Bend so bending up from the 11th half a step to the note you'd find at the 12th really nice sound and the other thing you can do with that is Bend up half a step and then slide in from half a step below [Music] and you saw me doing that in the intro as well the other missing note from our full C sharp minor slash E major scale is of course an a which we can find here 10th fret on the B string now once again using a little half step Bend is a really great way to bring this note in so starting from the G sharp at the ninth fret here little half step end up gets you to that a now one thing I really like to do is Bend up to it and then flick off of it like that really cool kind of sound so you can hear adding in these extra notes from the full scale really brightens up your solo and brings in some extra sweetness [Music] technique number four is string on string bends for string on string bends we're going to play two strings at once and then bend up on the lowest of those two strings you know we all know that sound particularly from country music but it works for loads of other styles too so there's a couple of places within this classic pentatonic box that this is always going to work starting here on the top two strings of the 12th fret so we can play them together and then Bend up the note on the B string a full step and of course bend down again as well now you don't actually have to play them both at the same time another common thing to do is Bend up the B string note and then the E string note once that bends in place that kind of sound the other place that we can do this is 11th fret on the G string is going to be where the bend is together with the 12th fret on the B string staying still sew together those two positions [Music] for number five let's look at how we can play faster runs with repeating patterns now there's probably a million different ways we could use repeating patterns with the pentatonic but the one I want to show you here uses groups of six which makes it rhythmically a bit more interesting than the usual groups of four makes it sound a bit more complex than it really is so what I'm doing is on the a string hammer on 9 to 11 same on the D same on the G so we've got six notes and that's the Rhythm there one two three four five six and all that happens in the space it would normally take to play Four notes so instead of one two three four we get one two three four five six half of me to say as I play it but just listen to that rhythm then what I can do is move this whole pattern all up a string so now it would be on the D string to the G string and then the B string of course we're going to go up to 12 this time with our hammer on now let's play those together so starting on the a string and then starting on the D string and then up again starting on the G string again 9 and 12 on the high e so nine eleven on the G nine and twelve on the B 9 and 12 on the high e so then all together on the a string from the D string from the G string so three groups of six [Music] and that starts to sound pretty kind of sophisticated really people will hear that and think you really know what you're doing [Music] when really all you're doing is running through the pentatonic scale [Music] so now let's hear the full solo again combining all five techniques [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] so I really hope that was useful thanks for watching and I'll see you in the next video

Channel: Jules Guitar

Views: 89,970

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Id: Urs5-C9__PY

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 22 2023