TECHNIQUES
Richard Barrett is on a mission to make you a better blues player – with full audio examples and backing tracks
Blues Headlines with Richard Barrett
Soloing Without Pentatonics
Tutor Richard Barrett | Gear used Knaggs SSC, Kemper Profiler Difficulty | 20 mins per example
IN THE NEVERENDING QUEST to push our playing in new and fresh directions, it’s good to try new shapes, patterns and scales. In this solo, I’m forcing myself to explore different ideas by avoiding anything overtly pentatonic. Instead, I’m concentrating mainly on the E minor scale (E F# G A B C D E) and referencing, or quoting directly from, a couple of arpeggios related to the backing chords. I’ll get more into the specifics of this later, but before that I’d like to admit that the title of this article is somewhat misleading: I’m not removing the pentatonic scale, simply enhancing it.
If we take the E minor pentatonic (E G A B D) and compare with the E minor scale mentioned earlier, you will see that there are just two extra notes: F# and C. These offer the possibility of more melodic variety, but bring an increased risk of ‘wrong’-sounding notes. If you play the E minor scale over a static E minor chord, you will notice that the C really is a ‘passing’ note – nice in a melodic passage, but not a good place to land! The F# is far less volatile, though over a shifting chord progression this could change…
The backing track this issue is not a traditional blues chord progression (Em C G D). For starters, it’s unapologetically minor – and blues very often makes a point of straddling the netherworld between major and minor with quartertone bends and trills between the major and minor 3rd. You can, of course, still play lots of blues-based licks, but the point here is to explore further options. Players such as Rory Gallagher, Gary Clark Jr and Joe Bonamassa have all successfully expanded their vocabulary to include ideas such as this, so it is most certainly worth a look. Hope you enjoy and see you next time!
Richard Barrett’s new album, Colours, is available now from richardbarrettguitar.com