Session 11 - Pentatonic Scales

[NeilES335]

Well, after almost 2 years(?)  of being "stuck" at S11, with several detours, ie; completing the Fretboard Workout Series (Major Scales, Speed and Agility, and Jazz Chords) I'm finally bidding Session 11 - Pentatonic Scales fairwell.  I've moved on.     

After learning the 5 forms and how they link together, I worked on building up speed and accuracy. I believe Steve recommends 80 BPM. I managed to get the speed up to about 125BPM 1/4 notes... so I guess that meets the requirement. Does this mean I'm capable of blistering melodic solos ala' Joe Bonamassa or SRV.... ahhhh.... sadly no.  But this is a process not an event, so on we go.

Looking into S12, S13 and beyond, it looks like I already know and can play much of the material, so I'm confident it won't take another 2 yrs to complete those! LOL.  When I started the LMG course about 5 yrs? ago, I thought I'd be complete in a year... was I ever mistaken about that! 

Unless of course I get sidetracked and actually learn some songs. As my lovely and patient wife says, " Could you please play some songs... you should be able to by now!" 

(I can, it's just the 3 chorders, that I find kinda boring...  how about "Misty', "Blue Bosa", "Summertime", "All of Me", in chord melody arrangement... now thats interesting)

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

Where is the jealous envy button 

You won't even want to jam with me anymore 

... I know I have a way to go somewhere... but I know in short order you can finish the LMG course

 

(Although we should schedule another jam.. but currently looking much into May)

Edited April 3, 2018 by Eracer_Team-DougH

[Blue Dog]

Way to go Neil, Keep on moving On.

[NeilES335]

Jel

2 hours ago, Eracer_Team-DougH said:

Where is the jealous envy button 

You won't even want to jam with me anymore 

... I know I have a way to go somewhere... but I know in short order you can finish the LMG course

 

(Although we should schedule another jam.. but currently looking much into May)

Button is lower right corner...   Naw... of course I'll jam with you.... next time we''ll plan ahead with what to practice/play and talk less!  Thanks for the vote of confidence.... finish ... well the next few Sessions maybe. Totally complete? Who knows ... just not 5 yrs I hope!

[NeilES335]

2 minutes ago, Blue Dog said:

Way to go Neil, Keep on moving On.

Thanks BD!

[matonanjin]

3 hours ago, NeilES335 said:

Looking into S12, S13 and beyond, it looks like I already know and can play much of the material, so I'm confident it won't take another 2 yrs to complete those! LOL.  When I started the LMG course about 5 yrs? ago, I thought I'd be complete in a year... was I ever mistaken about that!

Neil, congratulations on making it to S12.  with what I've seen of your working chords I suspect you won't be there too terribly long.

I can relate to your comments on starting L&MG.  When I started I figured it would take me about a year.  And yeah, here I am also after 5 years and still plugging away.  But hope does spring eternal.  I, like you, hope to complete it sooner rather than later.

Congratulations again on the progress.

[Wim VD]

Neil,

Congrats with your progress. Now may I suggest you do yourself and your wife a favour and learn a couple of songs? That's not a sidetrack but the application of what you have learned.

To get you going, here is the sheet for Misty from the real book. With the Jazz Chords workout in progress and the Major Scales completed, you're ready to tackle it 

Cheers, 

Wim

[NeilES335]

6 hours ago, Wim VD said:

Neil,

Congrats with your progress. Now may I suggest you do yourself and your wife a favour and learn a couple of songs? That's not a sidetrack but the application of what you have learned.

To get you going, here is the sheet for Misty from the real book. With the Jazz Chords workout in progress and the Major Scales completed, you're ready to tackle it 

Cheers, 

Wim

Wim 

Thanks very much for your gracious comments and the "Misty" song chart... I probably should break down and buy a "Real Book" with all the "standards' in it which would give me a lifetime of song material.. (man they are expensive here... )

I bought the 2 Barry Galbraith Jazz Guitar books from Steve's site a while back. I hammered away at "Darn that Dream" ( I started to call it "Darn that Song!) for a couple of months, and got the A section down passably, but at the time I found it much more than "not overly difficult" as Steve described. I'll give it another go.. 

You playing has been an inspiration to me..so I hope I can reach somewhere near the level that your recordings have demonstrated. If you have any more tips or suggestions, I'd be very grateful. 

All the Best! 

[Wim VD]

@NeilES335

Neil,

Justinguitar has some nice free lessons on Jazz.

This is the link to his Jazz Index Page:

www.justinguitar.com/en/JA-000-Jazz.php

On this page, you will find a section on Jazz Standards. I learned to play Autumn Leaves, Misty and Blue Bossa from these online lessons and enjoyed them a lot.

In these arrangements, the chords and melody are played separately, which makes it less complicated than learning chord melody fingerstyle.

Very interesting as well is the harmonic analysis that Justin does on all 3 songs.

Thanks for your nice words on my playing. I am currently still working on arpeggios and the CAGED system to improve my soloing. That's a huge task.

 

Take care,

Wim.

Edited April 5, 2018 by Wim VD

[Randy120]

Good for you! You should have been playing songs long ago. You know what you have to do.

[V7#5b9]

Well done Neil! I’ll second Wim’s suggestion. Misty is a great standard to begin with. I know it’s copyrighted material, but it’s been over 60 years, so what the heck? It’s a slow piece. First, listen to Frank Sinatra’s rendition several times. 

Then follow the sheet music with lyrics. I think the combination of standard notation and lyrics conveys the mood better and helps with the melody. 

[NeilES335]

Thank you gentlemen ... I shall gratefully taken your advice.  I have some arrangements of these songs and have "taken a shot" at them, but of course there is room for improvement. 

Edited April 7, 2018 by NeilES335
content

[Maybellene]

Congratulations Neil.

I think you are sifting along quit nicely.

When I started the Learn and Master course I was confident I could finish in 5 years.

Ha! I was wrong. I think it will take a little longer than I expected but I don't regret starting.  

Thank you for posting, I feel there is still hope that I can make it to the finish. 

[rkl312]

Great job finishing 11!  Good luck to your future!

[Guest]

HI,

After a month, I've memorized the Pentatonic scales for all the keys and all five forms of the scale.

Any idea what the best method is for memorizing all the notes on the fretboard for the Pentatonic scale in all of the keys? 

I'm having a mental block with this...

Thanks!

Edited November 16, 2020 by Guest

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

@RockVox say the note names as you play the scales. 

Or play find all the E's, find all the F's etc

[kenneth]

Anyone else having a hard time shaping some decent solos with this? Getting the notes down is one thing, actually composing a solo that sounds good too other than being harmonic is a different matter entirely. Wish there were examples of pentatonic scale solos in the book. 

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

@kenneth for me yes even after all this time, still sounds like a walk up/down pentatontic scale.

Steve has done some Live Lessons on this, check some of those videos in rewind at top look for Live Lessons. 

You'll have to Sift backwards those the titles.

Big catch keep it simple just a couple of notes, make sure you hit the root note of the scale a couple of times 

 

There are better players than me here, maybe they'll chime in

 

 

Edited July 14, 2022 by Eracer_Team-DougH

[Eracer_Team-DougH]

@kenneth  take a look at this video from BB

 

[matonanjin]

On 7/12/2022 at 9:07 AM, kenneth said:

Anyone else having a hard time shaping some decent solos with this? Getting the notes down is one thing, actually composing a solo that sounds good too other than being harmonic is a different matter entirely. Wish there were examples of pentatonic scale solos in the book. 

When you say "Anyone else" do you mean as in "Everybody"!?!?!  🤣   @kenneth, I think we all struggle with this, getting it to sound musical rather than just a scale.  Doug gave you a couple good sources.  There are lot's more out there on YouTube and elsewhere.  Perhaps the next step after getting the pentatonic scale under your finger is to master some licks to eventually be able to combine into a solo.  Let me look for a couple other potential study materials.

Is there a particular genre of music you want work?   Blues? Rock? Country?  Of course, the concept is genre independent but it's more fun working music you like. 

[Wim VD1]

On 7/12/2022 at 4:07 PM, kenneth said:

Anyone else having a hard time shaping some decent solos with this? Getting the notes down is one thing, actually composing a solo that sounds good too other than being harmonic is a different matter entirely. Wish there were examples of pentatonic scale solos in the book. 

Hi Kenneth,

Check out Session 19. That one is about soloing.

[kenneth]

Awesome advice, thanks all! 

Still working on this session, actually finally arrived at the point of understanding that a minor pentatonic scale skips half a step more from the root on the 6th string (up 3 frets), whereas a major goes up only a whole step from the root note. So it has taken me a while to figure that one out, and have struggled with where to start the scales, but the insight has finally opened this session up so it's been well worth sticking it out.

@Eracer_Team-DougH Particularly like blues, and like the vintage bluegrass/country style of music. Love the darker, muted blues that have the guitar sounding like an old steam train. Choo-choo!

[kenneth]

PS. After having watched the BB king video and the lesson from Steve, I am hoping this is not the level us session 11 guys need to be yet, because of all of the added half step notes they are playing, but I get what you are saying, being that these are great for smaller licks and eventually will blend right into what we are about to learn. Guessing that this is very useful in getting to learn where the notes are as Steve says in the session 11 video lessons.

The one thing that was really confusing was the link between the major and minor roots, i.e. the first position. The two-in-one pattern really had me confused since it is not the major scale first position, but the minor scale first position as it goes up 3 frets, or one and a half step. This is however the last position in the major scale if you link all of them together, so technically correct as they are relatives, but confusing at the same time. It didn't make sense that a major root was played second, but I now understand that the A minor pattern being played was just the first position in the minor scale, not the first position in the C major scale (but the last). This for some reason has been more confusing than the patterns themselves. 

 

 

[kenneth]

It's been the better part of a year and I am still practicing session 11.

Not sure if that is normal but there is just so much to take in that I feel as if this session really opens up the entire neck/fretboard. It really forces you to learn where each note is at, which in and of itself is extremely valuable, and requires a thorough understanding of the scales combined with each root note to start playing something that sounds like a guitar solo. 

The trick really seems to be starting off and ending at the root notes. Going over the entire fretboard through the scales implementing this idea has really been changing things for me, as in I'm finally beginning to understand the instrument and how it needs to be played. I also understand now why Steve has not forced anything written on us to practice, since that would take away the entire purpose of learning what really needs to be learned here. I am sure others will want to skip this session or round it up faster somehow but I am beginning to understand why this one is an extremely important one that can not be taken lightly, it really is the key to understanding the guitar.