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Pentatonic Scale Shapes - The Must Know Basic!
by Glenn Bird
Filed in
Acoustic
,
Newbies
,
Technique
,
Theory
Today we'll be looking at the 5 Pentatonic Scale Shapes that give you a great framework to solo around, and ones that if you know them will give you the advantage if you ever need to learn how to play guitar solos. In the this video example from Joe Musella at Berklee music, he shows you clearly how to play the 5 shapes and the fingering involved.
This example starts with A as the root note, but these shapes can be used all over the neck for any notes you choose. Key points to remember are:
- Work out the chord progression that you wish to play over
- Find the chord root notes in the shapes
- Choose which shape fits for soloing either up or down from the root note.
Here are the 5 shapes as they are on the neck, note they do not start on any specific frets - refer to video for placement (Please right click and either View or Save image).
Good luck with these, and if you need any more training remember us at How to Play Guitar Solos!
It's always a challenge learning something new, especially when it comes to things like foreign languages. Music is no different, especially if you're planning to learn to read sheet music. This can be a daunting task for even the most keen students among us, but you don't have to learn to sight read to be able to know how to play guitar solos or anything else!
There is a form of written music known as guitar tablature (usually referred to as just 'Tab'), and this can be so much easier to read as it Is literally written as it is on the guitar, so you can see it and play it. Even with the most basic forms of anything though, it still requires explanation to know how to read and understand it, especially when everyone is suddenly an expert on it, so let's cover the basics so you can actually learn something whenever you want to.
Just as sheet music has 5 lines on the page where the notes fit into, guitar tab also has lines. The difference being it has one line for each string on the guitar, and instead of notes being drawn in a separate place for every note, they are simply written on the line (string) with the number of the fret they are played on. Simple. You'll quite often see this tab as a basic form done in a program like notepad, with broken lines made into a music line. If you want to write your own you can use quite a few programs to draw lines such as Microsoft word, or any free word processing program.
Badd11 E7Madd13
--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
-----------5--------|-----------5--------|-----------4--------|
--------8-----8-----|--------8-----8-----|--------6-----6-----|
-----9-----------9--|-----9-----------9--|-----6-----------6--|
--------------------|--------------------|--------------------|
--7-----------------|--7-----------------|--0-----------------|
This is what the tab looks like, and you'll see it has six lines for the six strings, going from the bottom line being the low E string all the way through to the high E string as the top line. The bars are separated the same as any other sheet music, and the chords that the notes are based on are at the top (in this case it's Badd11 & E7Madd13). The notes are written as the number of the fret played on the string, so it starts with 7th fret on the low E string, then 9th fret on the D string and so on. Easy huh? This combined with a couple of videos to get the feel and sound of the track you're learning and you're well on your way.
When the notes call for a specific technique such as a hammer on, vibrato etc it will tell you, and this is what to look out for:
Slide - ( / ) up or ( \ ) down - means to slide, usually from one note to the next.
Vibrato - ( ~ ) means to add vibrato, usually after the note.
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
--4----5----------|--------------|-------------------|
----------4/6~----|--------------|--6/4---6--6/8-----|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
------------------|--------------|-------------------|
Hammer on - ( h ) means to hammer the note after the ( h ) instead of picking it.
Pull off - ( p ) means to pull off the note before so it sounds the note after the ( p ).
------------------------------|------------------------------|
--5-12p0h7-12p0h9-12p0h7-12p0h|--5-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h7-12p0h|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
------------------------------|------------------------------|
Other symbols to look out for are ( t ) - Tap ( x ) - dampen the note or palm mute it.
You won't have too much else in most songs and if you do there will usually be an explanation with it. Just remember, when learning how to play guitar solos it pays to get all the different forms of the song you can to learn from, video/ tab/ live audio etc. This will give you the best chance of getting the overall feel and notes of the song.
If you want more guitar solo advice and lessons, feel free to check out my site How to Play Guitar Solos
How to Play Guitar Solos - Learning Guitar Online
by Glenn Bird
Filed in
Newbies
,
Practice
,
Theory
As iv'e talked about in other articles, there are three ways to learn guitar solos, and for the purposes of this article we'll take a look at the learning how to play guitar solos online method. Most people just browse when it comes to looking up things online, and that is no different when it comes to learning guitar. What i'm going to suggest here is a system to give you the greatest advantage of really getting ahead by using this method, regardless of what style you play or who the lessons come from. Interested?
There are four parts to this, and most people will do just one of the first three. If you do all four you're guaranteed to see improvements in a very short space of time, and the great thing about doing it online is you can change the lessons or even styles to suit you at any stage. First of all, set up a folder in your computer for each song and categorise it in the style as well - this will make it so much easier for you later down the track. Let's take a look at the four parts:
1) Get the original song - There are so many sites online that you can download audio or video from, and in this case i'm going to suggest video so you can see what is actually being played. The biggest site for videos is, you guessed it, youtube. There are ways to download youtube videos or videos from any other site, and you can either choose the original clip or a live version, sometimes you don't have a choice so just grab what looks good and has a clear enough sound.
2) Get the Tab - Like video sites, guitar tab sites are too many to mention, but if you search for specific tabs you will eventually find what you want somewhere. Just for clarification, this doesn't have to be original tab, because you'll soon work out what's right and what's not from the other steps.
3) Get a fan video lesson - If there is one available, grab a video lesson from a fan who is playing the song you want. There are countless videos of people trying to play their favourite song, so chances are you'll get something in this area. This is just another interpretation that may give you an idea of how it's played, as sometimes you may miss things in the other steps.
4) Get software to help - The best software i have found while learning how to play guitar solos is software that slows down the original music. This is more in the category of playing by ear, but if you add it to the songs you're learning from these other three ways you'll master it in no time. Imagine being able to slow down the solo and still keep the same pitch so you could replicate it note for note?
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