GUITARHABITS

Free Quality Guitar Lessons

10 Indispensable Tips from Famous Guitar Players

By 7 Comments

Bigstock photo
I just came back from a holiday in Spain. I didn’t bring my guitar on the holiday and I really missed it from time to time, but I enjoyed great quality time with my wife and three kids.

It’s was also a good time to reflect and evaluate my life. I do that often anyway, but holidays in particular are really suited for some good thinking and gaining new inspiration.

I filled my moleskin notebook with new ideas, things I want to do more or less (more guitar playing, less worrying, more running, less email, more space, less clutter), I wrote down everything that came to mind. Just putting that stuff on paper is good for the soul.

While enjoying every minute of my holiday I also couldn’t wait to start applying all these new ideas when I got come home. It’s great to start over again every time you want to.

Coming back it felt great to feel the strings on my hands again. Later that evening I was watching some interviews and masterclasses of great guitar legends. I always love to do that. There are is so much to learn from that and so many insights to discover.Continue Reading

The 5 Major Pentatonic Scale Shapes – Positions

By 26 Comments

Bigstock photo
The major pentatonic scale is mostly used in country, folk country rock, blues and jazz.

It creates a more happy and uplifting sound.

The shapes of the major pentatonic scale are exactly the same as those of the minor pentatonic scale, except the root note is located else where.

Looking at it from the major scale, if you leave out the 4th and the 7th note of the major scale you’ll also end up with the major pentatonic.

The 5 shapes shown below are all the same scale (G major pentatonic scale) just played in different positions, so you can learn the scale all over the neck. That’s the whole purpose, eventually you want to have the freedom to be able to improvise around the entire fretboard.

SHAPE NAMES
Each shape has it’s own shape-name C, A, G, E and D, derived from the C-A-G-E-D system. Note: The name of the shapes have nothing to do with the key of the scale. The names refer to the chord shape (made up of the red and green dots) that is surrounded by the scale shape.

If you want to know more about the CAGED system check out: What is The CAGED System? (The Keys to The Fretboard)

ROOT NOTES
In the scale diagrams below the red dots indicate the root notes and the green dots indicate the remainder chord tones.

The root note of each shape determines the name of the scale. In the examples below all the scale shapes are in the key of G, so all the root notes are G notes.Continue Reading

Combining Pentatonics to Play Mixolydian

By 5 Comments

Today I introduce to you George Ramsay, Co-founder and Guitar Teacher at Bold Music Lessons. George sheds light on combining pentatonics to play mixolydian.

A great example of how get the most out of your pentatonic scales. Learn and reap the benefits!

HERE’S GEORGE

You can’t really talk about soloing on the guitar without understanding pentatonic scales. Normal, or “full” major or minor scales have seven different notes, while pentatonic scales have only 5 notes (hence “pent”).

Klaus has written extensively on this as well as the CAGED system, so I’ll let you read through some of his postings for more info on playing these scales.

Today we will look at creating the Mixolydian scale by combining some major pentatonic with its parallel minor pentatonic.

Mixolydian is used extensively when improvising over the 12 bar blues, other I-IV-V chord progressions, and more generally chord progressions featuring dominant seventh chords.

What the heck is Mixolydian?

Mixolydian is a mode, and modes are really just types of scales, much like major and minor (in fact, major is called the Ionian mode and minor is called Aeolian). Perhaps the simplest way to understand modes is to look at a major scale. Let’s look at C major, where our notes are C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.

Playing a major scale (in this case C major) but not starting or ending on C, creates our different modes. For example, the second mode, called Dorian (in this case D Dorian) would look like this: D-E-F-G-A-B-C. Similarly, the fifth mode, called Mixolydian, would have G-A-B-C-D-E-F as its notes. Notice that each of these modes consist of the same seven notes! We are just starting and ending in different places. These are modes.Continue Reading

Ruthless Minor Pentatonic Scales Over 3 Octaves

By 8 Comments

Photo by Bigstock photo
The standard minor pentatonic scale is normally played over 2 octaves and stays within one position.

If you have been playing and improvising with the minor pentatonic scale for some time it’s likely that you want to break out of that one position and expand your reach on the fretboard.

You can use the minor pentatonic scale over 3 octaves for this purpose. It wil give you much more freedom and flexibility.

When you play “the pentatonic scale over 3 octaves” it means you actually play 3 pentatonic scales, one after another. Each pentatonic scale consisting of 5 notes per octave.

In the first example (the E minor pentatonic) you start on the E note, which is your root note (open low E-string). You play the first 5 notes of the scale and then arrive on the 6th note to land on the octave (7th fret A-string), which of course is also an E note. Then you play the next pentatonic scale starting from that 6th note, play the 5 notes of the pentatonic scale and arrive on the 11th note (9th fret G-string) to land on your second octave. Continue on the 11th note, play 5 notes up the scale and arrive on the 16th note for your 3rd octave.

So you can play each example as one long hell of a scale across the entire neck or treat them as 3 separate scales.

The numbers next to the notes on the staff above the tablature indicate the finger placement of your left hand (assuming you play right-handed). 1 = index finger, 2 = middle finger, 3 = ring finger, 4 = pinky.

The first example, the “E minor pentatonic over 3 octaves” is commonly used to take the standard pentatonic scale to the next step. It’s also the most comfortable and easiest one to play. The other two (A minor and G minor) are a little bit more challenging but definitely worth the effort. Practice pays off!

Tip: Each scale can be played in different keys by moving the entire scale up or down the fretboard. If you want to move “the E minor pentatonic” up a half step to the key of F you need to move up the entire scale 1 fret higher. So the first 4 notes on the 6th string: “0 3 5 7” now become “1 4 6 8”. Moving every note of that scale up a half step (1 fret) and you’re playing F minor pentatonic. If you move up the scale a whole step (2 frets) you’re playing F# minor pentatonic and so on.

Assignments:
– Play each 3 octave scale ascending and descending.
– Memorize how to play each 3 octave scale.
– Play the scales with a metronome. Start slow and gradually build up speed.
– Play the scales in different keys.
– Play the 3 smaller pentatonic scales that make up the big “3 octave scale” separately, from root to octave, ascending and descending.

Have a blast!Continue Reading