Melodic tricks

Brighten up your solos and bust out of those pentatonic ruts…

1 Fret hand position

Thinking of a group of notes as a chord shape leads you to play more creatively than when playing up and down a scale. Getting your fret hand into formation – almost like a C chord shape in this case – prepares you to play the notes of a chord (such as G, B and D, the notes of a G chord) more effectively than picking them from the context of a scale.

2 Ch ords within scales

Play an open D shape at the 7th and 8th frets to give a G chord. As well as being an alternative voicing for a ‘lead’ guitarist to play along with any G chord, this can be a handy comfort zone when improvising over major chords. Obviously, you just move the shape around the fretboard for other key signatures. If you’ve ever played around with sus2 and sus4 chords, why not apply it here?

3 Stretches

Why should you develop your finger stretch? If you span seven frets from your first finger to your fourth you can play lots of slick legato licks (legato refers to hammerons and pull-offs) that cover two pentatonic scale shapes at the same time. Seven frets sounds like a lot, but, up at the 10th, 12th and 15th frets, it’s manageable for relatively experienced players. Try to build up to it!