IN THE WOODSHED
It’s time to increase your finger stretching and unlock some new scale shapes and approaches. Charlie Griffiths welcomes you to the shed.
Charlie Griffiths explains how three-notes-perstring licks can quickly expand your potential.
try all the examples using flowing legat o lines, or use alternate picking for a more machin e-li ke sound
Three-notes-per-string scale shapes are a great way of accessing the maximum available notes anywhere on the neck. These positions make full use of all four fingers and cover more frets than the traditional five-postion, or CAGED system shapes. As every string has the same number of notes, three-notes-per-string shapes lend themselves to patterns very well.
Here we have five approaches based in the A Minor, or A Aeolian shape, position 1. This scale has no sharps or flats, which makes it very simple and accessible to learn. The notes in the scale are A-B-C-D-E-F-G and the b3- b6-b7. intervals read as: 1-2- 4-5-
For this A Minor scale shape, there are three fretting-hand fingering patterns depending on which string you are playing. The lowest two strings are a tone and semitone, so first, third and fourth fingers would be most comfortable. For second and third strings use one, two and four because the arrangement is semitone-tone. Whenever you have a string with two tones in a row, use one, two and four, or one, three and four.
Example 1 is an introduction to the scale with a simple six-note idea. This is a good opportunity to check the fingerings are correct on each string. Example 2 has an Al Di Meola style approach and the pattern sounds more complicated. This sequence of four moves through the scale in strict 16th notes and is best played with alternate picking. Example 3 is inspired by Satriani or Petrucci. The five-notes-per-beat phrasing creates a flowing sound which is a little less predictable than triplets or 16th notes. Example 4 uses six other A Minor positions which cover the entire neck, and here we are borrowing two strings from each one. Every group of eight notes moves up a position which results in a cool Paul Gilbert-style diagonal motion from low to high.The final example is a descending run inspired by the likes of Yngwie Malmsteen or Vinnie Moore. Here we have adapted one note of the scale: every G is now a G#, which results in the exotic sounding A Harmonic Minor sound beloved of these players.
When playing through the examples you will see that we have used a mixture of picking and legato, but feel free to experiment with mixing up the techniques: try playing all the examples as flowing legato lines, or use strict alternate picking for a more machine-like sound. You can also use economy or hybrid picking, or even blend legato and picking techniques for a more unique effect.
NEXT MONTH Charlie demonstrates the technique of playing hammer-ons from nowhere