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We may have heard this in a solo, or just came up with this while improvising. Either way, we have a basic idea and we want to make it more interesting. The rst thing that comes to mind is that you can play this sequence with different time divisions, for instance in triplets:
5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8 5 8 3 3 3 3
or in quadruplets:
5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8 5
or even in quintuplets:
5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 7 8
Each of these three options has the accents fall on different rhythmic places, making the sequence feeling different. If you want to hear the difference, I prepared a video on my website (Link: http://www.tommasozillio.com/vid/DAMvideo1.shtml) where I play all the licks in this article and show some tricks on how to nail the different rhythmic divisions.
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Also, you may reverse the pattern, always while ascending the scale:
8 5 8 7 5 10 7 10 8 7 12 8 12 10 8 13
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Here the lick are tabbed in quadruplets, but dont forget that you can play it in triplets and quintuplets too! Of course, you can use both the straight and reverse patterns while descending the scale instead than ascending. Is that all? No! After a bit of experimenting you may realize that you can alternate one straight pattern with one reversed pattern:
5 8 5 7 8 10 7 10 8 7 8 12 8 10 12 13
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This pattern has 3 notes per string, that is exactly what we need for our little sequence! So let us apply the straight pattern on a descending scale that way:
5 8 5 7 8 5 8 5 6 8 4 7 4 5 7 3 7 3 5 7
3 7 3 5 7
3 7 3 5 7 5
Notice how playing this lick in quadruplets causes both the accents and the string changes to be misaligned with the beat, making the line more interesting. We can use the reverse pattern too, and the resulting lick is actually one of my favorite, great for ashy song endings. I tend to play it in sextuplets, so here it is:
8 5 8 7 5 8 5 8 6 5 6 6 6 7 4 7 5 4 7 3 7 5 3 6 3
7 3 7 5
7 3 7 5 3 5
These licks lend naturally to be played in legato instead than picking every note. The muting of unwanted strings is tricky, though. In the free video I prepared (Link: http://www.tommasozillio.com/vid/DAMvideo1.shtml) I give some tips on how to play the last example cleanly in legato. We are not limited to a single position on the neck: inserting some scale fragments along with our sequence, here is what can come out:
Am
17 13 17 15 13 17 13 17 15 13 16 13 15 17 13 17
G
15 12 15 13 12 15 12 15 13 12 14 12 13 15 12 15
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Pentatonics
Ok, all is well and good with the minor scale, but I nd that for some solo the minor scale is not open sounding enough for my ears. And what about blues? Sure, we can use the mixolydian mode, but would not it be nice to be able to play a sequence like that with a pentatonic scale? Oh, yes, it would, but the usual pentatonic ngering is 2 notes per string:
while we need 3 notes per string to make it work. Is there a way to have a pentatonic scale pattern with 3 notes per string? Yes, there is! In fact there are two ways, not only one: Solution 1: If we want to stay in position like when we played the full minor scale, we can combine two adjacent pentatonic patterns that way:
thus obtaining a 3-notes-per-string pattern. A descending scale with the inverse sequence on a E minor pentatonic will become:
15 10 15 12 10
15 10 15 12 10
14 9 14 12 9
14 9 14 12 9
14 10 14 12 10
15 10 15 12 10 12
I nd the sound of the repeating notes (like the D on both the rst and second string, the A on the second and the third, etc) to be kinda cool. But if you dont like it, we have another option: Solution 2: We can lay down the pentatonic with 3 notes per string with no repeated notes. The licks become quite more difcult due to the position shift on the neck, but with a bit of practice I am sure you will be able to handle it. This is one possible pattern for the A minor pentatonic laid out on the fretboard:
10 5 10 7 5
8 3 8 5 3 5
Thats all for the rst part, in the second part we are going to look at the same 5-note sequence in less standard situations. In the meantime, go forth and come up with some interesting licks on your own! c 2009 Tommaso Zillio - All Rights Reserved.