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Innovative ways to practice the pentatonic scale.


Noddy

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Posted

I have been playing for about 4 years now and for most of that time I simply start out by playing the pentanic scales starting from the first few frets down to the last.

while it has benefitted me, what other ways can I go about it to add a little varietie.

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Posted

Take the notes in the "A" pentatonic scale.
(A,C,D,E,G)

Figure out how to play the "A" pentatonic scale in the position that corresponds to each one of these notes on the high "E" string and build some new patterns!

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Posted

i got this from a saxaphone book.
i can't really explain it in guitar terms so try to follow me....
the notes are root, 2nd, 3rd, 5th, and 6th in the major pent. what you do is build 4 note patterns and then run them up and down the scale
everyone knows this one:
root 2nd 3rd 5th, 2nd 3rd 5th 6th, 3rd 5th 6th root....etc
when you play them going down, don't do them in retrograde,
it gets tricky when you do the wierd ones like
root 2nd 5th 3rd, 2nd 3rd 6th 5th, 3rd 5th root 6th...etc
or this one
root 5th 2nd 3rd, 2nd 6th 3rd 5th, 3rd root 5th 6th...etc
they are pretty tricky (they'll help get your technique together though) and most guitarists don't bother with them so you'll sound a bit different
just remember that patterns aren't terribly musical by themselves, but a bunch of these sound cool when you mix them with eachotehr

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Posted

there are several geometric (sort-of) patterns that used to play when I practiced scales

lets say you are playing a pentatonic - 5 note scale

go up and down the scale 3 or 4 notes at a time

for example 1-2-3 2-3-4 3-4-5 4-5-6 and backwards

or 1-2-1 2-3-2 3-4-3 4-5-4 , on this one I think I used some hammer ons an pull offs. You can hear Billy Gibbons use this pattern on the solo for LaGrange at one point


Same thing with (Starting at the higher octave of the pentatonic scale) 6-5-4-3 5-4-3-2 4-3-2-1 and so on

or skipping a note in the scale 6-4-5-3-4-2-3-1

there are all kinds of patterns you can come up with


I hope this makes sense, Im sure it could be explained much better

but these types of patters do work with practicing all scales

I used to practice playing scales every morning when I first woke up. I would have my guitar right there by the bed and just wake up and play for 10 minutes or so

After a while, I started waking up realizing that I was Dreaming the Scales as I was waking up

the other thing which has been said time and time again is to practice slowly. Don't practice any faster than you can play cleanly

Well, thats my 2 cents plus some, thanks

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Posted

The Frank Gambale way:

 

 

Pay attention to the picking direction indicated below. This is a way of "Sweeping" the pentatonic scale, where you can get it VERY fast. It also works for some sequenced patterns. (BTW, this type of picking is called economy picking)

  • 3 weeks later...
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Posted

here's a fun lick in G pentatonic minor:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------6---------------------------------8----11---8----
--------3--5-/-7-----5--7----5------5--7--/--10------------------
--3--5----------------------8---3-8---------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------


"/" = slide

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