This session is one of our Music Corner series with Jamie McCredie. Generally we run them weekly as one hour drop-ins delving into a broad range of subjects relating to technique, theory, know-how, practice or something topical in the guitar world.
This session covers looks at venturing out of those pentatonic boxes. Find out how you can safely introduce other notes into your soloing and improvisation.
Overview
A pentatonic has just five notes and there are a host of these scales out there but I guess we’ll focus on the pentatonic minor and pentatonic major scales and look at how we can bring in other notes from the chromatic scale. These other notes are sometimes just a fret away from the pentatonic safe zone ones but which other notes do we choose, when do we bring them in, is there a structured approach (along with using our ears) to help us here? This is a massive subject.
We all learn the pentatonic patterns for playing over the Blues and other genres (major and minor). Unfortunately these little vertical boxes can lock us in. Linking the boxes together laterally is brilliant to master and extremely useful but introducing other notes (and we still have 7 to play with) in a logical and sonically satisfying manner is a ‘should-try’. Lots to discuss.
Music Corners in general
These weekly one hour sessions are designed to give us the tools to self-improve and widen our knowledge in the following general areas: rhythm, reading music, improvising, understanding music theory, getting good tone, how to play a solo, how to play with a group, how to develop your ear, learning the rules of music through transcribing the history of a genre. Our tutor, Jamie McCredie, will share key things he has learned over years that have helped to make him the professional guitarist and musician he is today.
Materials:
Relevant materials will be available for each session.
Session suitability
This lesson is most suitable for intermediate players but players of all standards will register some lightbulb moments and pick up some great ideas and approaches.