EXPANDING ON THE BASIC PENTATONIC

Not everyone wants to master the entire fretboard. So much good music can be made with just a couple of notes. If you’re someone who’s learnt that first pentatonic shape and milked it for all it’s worth, this column is for you. I just wanted to provide the more common uses either side of the good old minor pentatonic shape one. Billy Gibbons, Tony Iommi and John Lee Hooker really come to mind, personally, as guys who didn’t need to venture far from that main shape to play a great solo.

All examples are recorded at 100bpm. There are times when the tracks won’t be essential, but for licks and phrases I strongly encourage you to listen to the tracks to get the sound of them in your ears, so to speak.

EXERCISE #1

This is the basic shape. I had to include this in case you hadn’t learnt it. At the 5th fret it would be an A minor pentatonic, which all the exercises here will be based off. This is a great shape for building riffs and solos from, and you will find it can work over major and minor chords. For example, try this one over an A major backing track or an A Minor backing track. You will have differing results, but you should find it works nonetheless. If you are comfortable with this shape and can play licks and fills, continue right on to Exercise #2. If you aren’t familiar with the shape, well… after playing Exercise #2, continue right on to Exercise #2! It won’t hurt you.

EXERCISE #2

This is essentially another straight scale like above, only this time we take out some of the uncomfortable use of the pinky (another great reason this is great for the less experienced) and we get a few extra notes at the bottom and top of the scale. The slides also add instant character. When sliding up from the 7th fret to the 9th fret on the third string, I use my third finger. Then, crossing to the second string (B string), I utilise my first finger so I can continue up using my first and third fingers. We have a nice even and square little pattern we can play with using frets 8 and 10 on the top two strings now. You’ll also see we can utilise effective bends from the 10th fret, particularly on the first string. Be sure to practice this scale up and back.

EXERCISE #3

Here is the first of the licks. I mentioned Tony Iommi, didn’t I? Well here is a lick that is reminiscent of solos from tunes like “Paranoid” and “Iron Man”. Utilising the lower end of the scale in Exercise #2, by using slides and hammer-ons you can achieve a really smooth and flowing set of ideas. Listen to the track to get the phrasing and once you’ve got it, speed it up! It sounds great fast and it’s not technically as hard as it seems.

EXERCISE #4

So I didn’t mention it but as we move up the neck we are working out of the comfortable side of the second pentatonic shape. We start in that comfortable square box in the form of the 10th fret. Bending a full tone to the pitch of the 12th fret, we then work our way back to the third string with some Gibbons-esque disjointed sequencing before flowing down to the root note on the 4th string providing resolution. On this occasion I would use my second finger on the 9th fret and slide back to the 7th, resuming the 5th fret with my first finger and proceeding with the original pentatonic shape.

EXERCISE #5

Not too dissimilar to the last exercise, we slide up using the 2nd finger, then holding the 1st finger on the 8th fret. Keeping these two notes held down, we simply alternate the pick between the second and third string, like a small chord. Sliding back we want to transport the same way we did above. We then slide back again into what it in fact the position lower than the original pentatonic shape in Exercise #1, and continue using our first and third finger to descend the shape.

EXERCISE #6

Now to mix it up, I start you off with a lick in our original pentatonic. This starts with a “Highway to Hell” solo style bend before sliding up into the next position as we’ve been utilising. Using the aforementioned box on the 2nd and 1st strings, we can play a cool pentatonic lick before resolving on the A way up at the 10th fret.

SUMMARY

The explanations are fairly simple and these exercises aren’t overly complicated. That’s what I love about this slight evolution of the basic pentatonic. You can see how many ideas can be created and also how the sliding nature of the shape utilises one of the more vocal elements that separates guitar from many other instruments. I hope you had as much fun reading and playing through as I did.