A
AGA
Guest
Yeah, yeah… everyone “knows” the pentatonic scale…but do they REALLY know the pentatonic scale?
DO THEY?! DO THEY??!!
This scale is probably the most utilized in Rock N’ Roll. I am starting a personal challenge with the aim of becoming very proficient at using it. The end goals of the challenge are improving writing, improvisation & transcription skills. And the challenge is as follows:
1) Pick any song of your choice that uses the pentatonic scale. Transcribe and learn the lead guitar by ear. (No cheating! That defeats the purpose!) You can learn the whole song, or parts of it, like the solo or intro etc. The most important thing here is accuracy and attention to detail.
2) Once you have learned the song, (or parts of it) transpose it either to a different key or a different neck position in the same key. The aim of this part of the challenge is to be comfortable playing all positions of the scale all over the fretboard.
3) Next is to deconstruct. Chop the lead parts you learned into phrases and pay close attention to every phrase. Do they lead to conclusion or tension? How do they sound against different chords? What makes this melody effective? Do you know where you are? (You’re in the jungle baby!) I mean, do you know which degree of the scale you are playing? Can you tell by ear? This part of the challenge will help your solo writing and improv skills. Play your different phrases all over the neck and in different orders (if you’ve learned more than one song mix them up!). Do this with a backing track or metronome.
4) Create your own variations of the phrases you learned to improvise or write your own solo. Throw in some of the original phrases you learned too! Now you have a whole new vocabulary of guitar phrases. Use a backing track or metronome for this part.
5) Rinse and repeat! Pick another song and SLAAAAAAYYY!
Because this challenge is very involved it DOES NOT have any time limits. I will be doing this on my own anyway, so I thought to share in case anyone wants to join in. Simply post your progress on this thread. This is a great opportunity to learn all those solos you always wanted to play (here I come Guns and Zeppelin catalogs) and using that time to also improve your knowledge of the instrument as well as your own writing!
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!
DO THEY?! DO THEY??!!
This scale is probably the most utilized in Rock N’ Roll. I am starting a personal challenge with the aim of becoming very proficient at using it. The end goals of the challenge are improving writing, improvisation & transcription skills. And the challenge is as follows:
1) Pick any song of your choice that uses the pentatonic scale. Transcribe and learn the lead guitar by ear. (No cheating! That defeats the purpose!) You can learn the whole song, or parts of it, like the solo or intro etc. The most important thing here is accuracy and attention to detail.
2) Once you have learned the song, (or parts of it) transpose it either to a different key or a different neck position in the same key. The aim of this part of the challenge is to be comfortable playing all positions of the scale all over the fretboard.
3) Next is to deconstruct. Chop the lead parts you learned into phrases and pay close attention to every phrase. Do they lead to conclusion or tension? How do they sound against different chords? What makes this melody effective? Do you know where you are? (You’re in the jungle baby!) I mean, do you know which degree of the scale you are playing? Can you tell by ear? This part of the challenge will help your solo writing and improv skills. Play your different phrases all over the neck and in different orders (if you’ve learned more than one song mix them up!). Do this with a backing track or metronome.
4) Create your own variations of the phrases you learned to improvise or write your own solo. Throw in some of the original phrases you learned too! Now you have a whole new vocabulary of guitar phrases. Use a backing track or metronome for this part.
5) Rinse and repeat! Pick another song and SLAAAAAAYYY!
Because this challenge is very involved it DOES NOT have any time limits. I will be doing this on my own anyway, so I thought to share in case anyone wants to join in. Simply post your progress on this thread. This is a great opportunity to learn all those solos you always wanted to play (here I come Guns and Zeppelin catalogs) and using that time to also improve your knowledge of the instrument as well as your own writing!
LET THE GAMES BEGIN!!