Once again I’ve found that an email reply I made to a Logical Lead Guitar student can help others understand an important concept — in this case how to determine whether to use a major or minor Pentatonic scale pattern for the song you’re learning.

Here are some questions asked by Julien in Switzerland, along with my replies…

From: Julien [mailto:julien
To: 'Adam St. James'
Subject: Question

 Hi Adam,

I’m working my way through Logical Lead Guitar and have the pentatonic more or less (finger) memorized… the problem I have is applying them to music (songs..). For example I am strumming along with something which is played (just for example) in the key of ‘F’ –so I play the first position pentatonic starting on the first fret 6^th string – and it doesn’t fit??? What am I missing? Do I have to start on the relative minor? And where do I go when the chord changes?

 Thanks for your help – I’ll get there one day !!!

 Julien 

From: Adam@LogicalLeadGuitar.com [mailto:adam@logicalleadguitar.com]
Sent: 03 February 2010 08:49
To: Julien
Subject: Re: Question

Julien,

You might be running into the issue of major vs. minor.

Yes, it’s true, the main pentatonic pattern will work better over a minor chord than a major chord. Such a huge majority of the rock music of the past 50 years has been based on minor chords — or power chords which lack a major or minor definition — that the main pentatonic pattern usually works.

If it doesn’t, it is probably because the song/chord you’re playing is major.

In this case, you need to learn to adjust a minor pentatonic pattern and play it focusing on the relative major root notes. From your message I think you understand this to some degree…

In your example, the F chord — if played as a major chord — is the Relative Major of the pattern you’re trying to play. So if you play an F major chord, your choices are:

1) play the second pentatonic pattern beginning on F

2) play the main pent pattern beginning on D (10th fret). D is the relative minor/F is the relative major. If you put the main pent pattern at the 10th fret (D minor/F major), but you play phrases which focus on the F notes, rather than the D notes, you’ll be playing major riffs, which should fit better over your F major chord.

I hope this is helpful!

Just keep working your way through the patterns and it will all become more and more clear as you go along.

Everything in the Logical Lead Guitar course took me years to figure out…

Keep on playin’,

Adam

*********************************

And here is a follow-up you can learn from as well:

—– Original Message —–
From: Julien
To: ‘Adam@LogicalLeadGuitar.com’
Sent: Wednesday, February 03, 2010 2:29 PM
Subject: RE: Question

Thanks Adam – I have to sit down and work this out a bit, one thing that struck me today as I was playing along with a cd – it seemed to me to work if lets say the song was in the key of G – so I played pattern two starting on G on the 6th string third fret – the question is – is this true for all keys ? if yes – then I’ve got it licked !!!!

Thanks again

Cheers for now Snowy Switzerland !!

**********

My response:

Julien,

Yes, you’ve got it.

In your latest example, you’re playing in the key of G major — which is the relative major of E minor.

To play in G major you would/could play the second Pentatonic pattern with your second finger starting on G at the third fret of the sixth string, as you have figured out.

You can also play all the rest of the Pentatonic patterns exactly where they would then fall…

If you use the key of A minor/C major I used for the examples in Logical Lead Guitar as a starting point, you’ve now moved the second pattern down from the 8th fret to the 3rd fret. This five fret move has changed you from the key of C major (my examples in LLG), to the key of G major (the song you’re working on).

So if you took all five of the Pentatonic scale patterns I showed in LLG, and subtracted five frets from where I had each pattern in the key of C major, they would then be in the key of G major and you could play over your song!

Keep on workin’ it!

Adam

Adam St. James
www.LogicalLeadGuitar.com
www.ShutUpNPlayYerGuitar.com
www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com
www.GuitarLifeMag.com
www.RockChops.com
www.BluesLessons.com
www.JazzGurus.com

Another Logical Lead Guitar student writes asking me to clarify something I’ve said in a newsletter:

—– Original Message —–
From: <standish9@…
To: <adam@logicalleadguitar.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 14, 2010 12:16 PM
Subject: Re: Logical Lead Guitar 13: Here’s The 2nd Most Important Scale

> ok adam
>
> sometimes people use words in ways other have no idea what they mean,
> i write to you for just a clarification, when you say;
>
> As you become more comfortable with these patterns (have
> you remembered to keep putting in rounds of all these
> patterns? You have to!), you’ll be able to start fooling
> around with simple riffs and solos between the two
> patterns.
>
> can you please tell me what in the world your on about with the word
> “ROUNDS” ? ?

Stan,

Thanks for writing, and thanks for studying with me!

When I talk about “Rounds” I’m talking about the process of practicing one pattern at every fret on the guitar, or at least every fret at which you can comfortably play (obviously different on an acoustic guitar than an electric guitar).

So, for example, if you practice the Main pentatonic scale pattern at the first fret, then move up a fret and play it again, then up another fret, and so on.

When you’ve played the pattern at every fret you can comfortably play it at, that is one “Round.” in my book.

In my early days I practiced every single finger exercise, every single Pentatonic scale pattern, every Diatonic scale pattern, and every arpeggio, starting at the first fret and working my way all the way up the neck to play them at every fret I could comfortably play them at.

I played hundreds or more rounds of every pattern over the years.

This is one of the most important steps to make you completely automatic at flying all over the fretboard when soloing, or when copying someone else’s solo.

It takes time, but you’ll be playing guitar the rest of your life, right?

Adam

Adam St. James
www.LogicalLeadGuitar.com
www.ShutUpNPlayYerGuitar.com
www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com
www.GuitarLifeMag.com
www.RockChops.com
www.BluesLessons.com
www.JazzGurus.com

I recently got an email question from a player named Ray who is studying with my Logical Lead Guitar course, and also had questions about learning specific lead guitar sections from famous songs, as taught in Tony Aja’s Guitar Leads course, which I think is a great learning tool and a fine complement to Logical Lead Guitar.

Find out more about the 425 Lead Guitar Solos and Riffs you can learn from Tony’s course here: Guitar Leads Course

(Follow that link and you’ll get Volume 1 of Tony’s course for free! Volume 1 teaches solos by Jimi Hendrix, B.B. King, the Beach Boys, The Beatles, Bad Co., Santana, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Stevie Ray Vaughan, and more!)

In answering Ray’s questions, I realized my answer would be beneficial to all guitar players working on their lead guitar skills.

Here’s the gist of what I told Ray:

All the stuff in my Logical Lead Guitar course actually took me years of practice. A player should NOT expect that they’re going to study a course as extensive as LLG, and learn it all in a month or three….

And over time, stuff just starts to make more and more sense. But sometimes the brain has to catch up with the fingers — so just keep playing all the patterns over and over and over again in all the different ways I teach (scales, exercises, noodling around, etc.) and the fingers will eventually just know where to go, even before the brain completely understands….

At the same time, you should understand that the fingers really need the work. They need the practice. They need the massive amounts of repetition I recommend — as in playing dozens and hundreds of “rounds” (playing a scale or arpeggio pattern one time at every fret, all the way up the fretboard, before switching to the next pattern, is what I consider one round).

While your brain is trying to comprehend what it is you are piecing together, you must put your fingers through the workout over and over and over again, until they become totally fluent AND automatic.

If you do not do this, you will NOT become a really advanced lead guitarist.

You might become an OK lead guitarist, but you’ll never really feel the excitement of total fretboard freedom that comes with being able to improvise at an advanced/pro level. And believe me, it is a ton of fun. I live to play lead guitar.

Well, I love coaching my son’s baseball team too — but mostly I live to play lead guitar!

Believe it!

As for Tony’s Guitar Leads course, yes, any time you’ve got someone showing you specific lead guitar riffs from actual songs, you’re going to have fun, and learn a lot. Hopefully though, for every lead you learn, you immediately recognize which scale pattern it came from (because you’ve been studying and practicing scale patterns with Logical Lead Guitar).

If you just learn the solo riffs, but don’t analyze them as to which scale pattern they came from, then you really haven’t benefited very much from learning the solo — because the NEXT song you really want to learn the solo from might be using almost the exact same riffs, but you won’t be able to figure that out without someone else’s help, because you don’t understand how the scales are used to play common riffs… I don’t mean you, specifically, I mean any player….

Any player trying to become a fluent, accomplished guitarist has to become able to recognize the commonly repeated patterns before they’ll be able to just start figuring out solos at warp speed — but you can get there if you follow my lead (ha ha…).

When you learn a solo, you need to think about which scale pattern(s) the
solo uses, or which arpeggios.

It’s just like when you learn a new song: You have to think about what key it is, and what the chord progression it is (like, is it I-IV-V, or I-ii-V-I, etc.)

This is how you unlock the mysteries of all songs.

Simply learning songs or riffs and not putting this easy analysis to it dooms you to forever needing other people to teach you how to play songs, how to play the guitar.

Don’t doom yourself that way!

Rock on!

Adam

ps. Have you checked out my www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com ? It will keep you motivated too!
Adam St. James
www.LogicalLeadGuitar.com
www.ShutUpNPlayYerGuitar.com
www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com
www.RockChops.com
www.BluesLessons.com
www.JazzGurus.com

I regularly receive emails from guitarists asking me to further explain something in one of my courses, in this case, my teachings on Modes contained in the Advanced level, Week 4, Lesson 1 of my new, completely, totally FREE ONLINE GUITAR COURSE: 

12WeekGuitarCourse.com

This question comes from Shiro in California:

From: Shiro

Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 2010 4:07 PM

To: Lessons@12WeekGuitarCourse.com

Subject: RE: More Fun on Guitar! Week 4 Guitar Course Links Inside…

I believe there is a mistake in lesson 1, Tab for lesson (for advanced wk 4) The first mode is labled C to C: C Ionian Mode (C Major) but all of the other modes are identical. Please explain !!

Shiro,

Thanks for writing, and thanks for studying with me! I shipped your order on Saturday, by the way. You should have it today or tomorrow.

I just took another look at the tab for Advanced Week 4, Lesson 1 and don’t see any errors. Notice the brackets above the Tab, showing you how each one octave mode is actually a subset of the two octave major scale…

There are seven modes: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.

All seven of the modes can be found within the basic major scale. Each mode starts on a different note from within the major scale. That’s what those brackets are showing.

If you play a C major scale, and you start and end on C, you’re going to sound like you’re playing C Ionian (usually just called C major).

If you play all the same notes in that scale, except you skip the first C and begin on the second note of the scale, the D, and you continue up the C scale all the way until you hit the next D, you’re going to sound like you’re playing D Dorian. D Dorian includes all the same notes — the same key signature — as C Ionian.

If you then repeat the process, but begin on E and play and octave up to the next E, you’re going to sound like you’re playing in E Phrygian. E Phrygian and C Ionian include all the same notes, except to bring out the “Phrygian” sound, you focus on the E notes — try beginning and ending your melodic phrases on the E notes instead of the C.

You’d continue this thinking to find all the other modes as well.

So you might say:

C Ionian = D Dorian, E Phrygian, F Lydian, G Mixolydian, A Aeolian, and B Locrian.

But don’t get hung up on all the theoretical mumbo-jumbo. If you learn your seven C major scale patterns inside and out, and then you use those seven patterns to improvise up and down the fretboard — but you do so focusing on the E notes, for example — then you’re going to sound like you’re playing E Phrygian — because you are.

If you solo up and down the fretboard using those same seven C major scale patterns, but you begin and end all your phrases on F, you’re going to sound like you’re playing in F Lydian — because you are.

Does that clarify a bit?

If you haven’t already done so, just make sure you learn all seven diatonic patterns until you can play them in your sleep. Understanding how to then use them to play in any of the seven modes will come to you over time.

Rock on!

Adam

Ps. Please tell some friends about the 12 Week Guitar Course!

12WeekGuitarCourse.com

Hours and hours of video lessons at beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels — plus all the tab and sheet music to go with it!

www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com

Plus, when you begin studying with my new course, you’ll recieve a free download of my book, “25 Riffs You Must Know,” part of my Logical Lead Guitar DVD course — and 50-minutes of video lessons teaching those 25 Riffs!

All at absolutely no charge!!!!

www.12WeekGuitarCourse.com

I’ve got a brand new course coming very soon… I’ll post the url right here!

Happy Halloween

After 34 years of guitar playing I’m still eagerly studying and learning as much about guitar and guitar playing as I can. Is there anything more fun than guitar?

Easily my favorite method of learning these days is from the plethora of excellent guitar lesson DVDs available from all the big music publishers. There simply is no better way to learn guitar than DVD.

Here’s a list of a few guitar lesson DVDs I’ve personally been studying lately:

The Best of the Allman Brothers Signature Licks — I’m in an Allman Brothers and Southern Rock tribute band (see AlmostBrothersBand.com for our performance videos and calendar) so naturally this one hit home for me. While I usually figure out all songs by ear (usually using slow down technology when needed), I love to cross-reference what I’ve figured out with the available songbooks and teaching materials. Obviously, my tribute band makes more money the more accurately we play the songs! This DVD kicks ass!

Lynyrd Skynyrd Signature Licks DVD — Ditto what I said about the Allman Brothers DVD. And besides, virtuoso instructor Greg Koch is hilarious on this one! Really enjoyable viewing…

Eric Clapton Acoustic Classics Signature Licks DVD – My band doesn’t yet play any Clapton (does it count as Southern Rock? — yes, to some degree, if you consider that Duane Allman guested all over the Layla album) but I’ve enjoyed digging in and learning some of the great Eric Clapton songs on this DVD lately, especially “Tears In Heaven.” Man,  I don’t know how he can play that song in concert — it brings tears to my eyes every time.

Django’s Rhythm — I’ve always loved Gypsy jazz legend Django Reinhardt’s playing, but I’ve let a couple decades slip by since I first started listening to him without really buckling down and learning his style. And not just his incredible lead guitar style (and that with a severly burned/messed up fret hand), but his great rhythm guitar chops too. I just got this one and I’m really excited about it!

Best of Lennon & McCartney for Electric Guitar – I’ve got nine- and six-year-old children, and as a part of their early musical education, I am continually playing them the music of many classic artists, including the likes of Chet Atkins, John Coltrane, B.B. King, and of course rock artists such as the Beach Boys and the Beatles. And since I’m hearing those early Beatles songs over and over again, I found this DVD really fun to study. And who doesn’t like the Beatles? (The new Beatles Rock Band video game is pretty cool too, ain’t it?)

There are others, and I routinely check out new DVDs and learn at least a few chops from each. I’ll blog about my favorites from time to time…

Here is a collection of 10 great blues guitar riffs you can throw into your playing right away. Most of these riffs are based on the playing of the blues guitar legends. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing many celebrity blues guitarists during my 20+ year music journalism career, including B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Lonnie Brooks, Robben Ford, Taj Mahal, and many other blues greats.

These blues guitar greats have been a big influence on me, as well as the ones who were gone before I had a chance to interview them: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Albert King, Freddie King, Albert Collins, and the likes of those guys… 

Anyway, enjoy this quick batch of blues guitar riffs, and keep on practicin’!

Riff #1:

This is a great opening statement, in the style of T-Bone Walker.

E|————-5–5–|
B|——-5–7——–|
G|–5h6————–|
D|——————-|
A|——————-|
E|——————-|

Riff #2:

Here’s a similar move as demonstrated in Riff #1, and something you might hear from B.B. King:

E|—————–|—–
B|——-5–7/10v–|—–
G|–5h6————|—–
D|—————–|—–
A|—————–|—–
E|—————–|—–

Riff #3:

Riff #3 works well over either the I or IV chord.

E|–8p5—–8p5—–5——–5–|—–
B|——-7——-7——-5–7—–|—–
G|———————————|—–
D|———————————|—–
A|———————————|—–
E|———————————-|—–

Riff #4:

This is a riff played in the famous “B.B.’s Box,” because B.B. King (not to mention every other blues player in the world) uses this area of the pentatonic scale extensively – especially in slow blues. Bend the fourth note a whole step up to E and hold it a bit, before continuing back down to your root note.

E|——8–10–10b|–8——-|——
B|–10—————|—–10v–|—–
G|—————-|———-|——
D|—————-|———-|——
A|—————-|———-|——
E|—————-|———-|——

Riff #5:

Riff #5 is a tension building take off on a Chuck Berry riff, very common to many blues solos. Bend the final note a whole step and add vibrato.

E|–5———|—–
B|—–8p5—-|—–
G|———-7b|—–
D|————|—–
A|————|—–
E|————|—–

Riff #6:

Wiggle the initial double-stop (two notes played at one time) for a bit with your first finger before aggressively attacking the remainder of this riff.

E|————————|—–
B|–5——————–|—–
G|–5v——————|—–
D|——7p5—–7—7–|—–
A|———–7———–|—–
E|————————|—–

Riff #7:

Play these familiar sounding double-stops in groups of three, sliding into the first of each group, before playing the 7th fret and 5th fret double-stops with third and first finger barres (respectively).

E|————–|————-|————-|—————-|—–
B|–/8–8–8–|–/8–8–8–|–/8–8–8–|–7–5———|—–
G|–/9–9–9–|–/9–9–9–|–/9–9–9–|–7–5h6——|—–
D|————-|————-|————–|————–7—-|—–
A|————-|————-|————–|—————–|—–
E|————-|————-|————–|—————–|—–

Riff #8:

I learned this cool jazz-blues turnaround or solo opener from Charlie Baty of Little Charlie and the Nightcats – one of my favorite modern blues players. Try following this up with Riff #1, then take off from there.

E|–5–5–5–5–5–|—–
B|–5–4–3–4–5–|—–
G|–6–5–4–5–6–|—–
D|–4–4–2–4–4–|—–
A|——————–|—–
E|——————–|—–

Riff #9:

Here’s a classic blues riff for which you might want to use hybrid picking – plucking the high E string with the second or third finger of your pick hand, while simultaneously using the pick to sound the lowest notes. Let the high string ring throughout this whole riff.

E|–5——–5–5–5–5—|—–
B|–3h4p3—–3———-|—–
G|———–5—–5–2—|—–
D|————————–|—–
A|————————–|—–
E|————————–|—–

Riff #10:

Riff #10 goes for the style of Dickey Betts and the Allman Brothers, one of my favorite bands – along with a great Albert King-inspired lick at the end.

E|——10——8–10p8——|–10——8–10p8–|-8–12b-12r-11-10————-|
B|–10——10———–10–|——10———–10|—————————13–10–10v–|
G|—————————-|———————-|———————————-|
D|——————————|———————-|———————————|
A|——————————|———————-|——————————–|
E|——————————|———————-|——————————–|

To really master great riffs like these, you’ve got to understand your pentatonic scale patterns. All the blues greats do. I’ll show you how to absolutely master the five pentatonic scale patterns to play sizzling blues guitar riffs with my course, Logical Lead Guitar, a valuable resource for guitarists at all levels.

Whether you already play lead guitar, or are satisfied with simple rhythm work, Logical Lead Guitar includes some excellent lesson material that will truly help you learn and master guitar.

Get more info: www.LogicalLeadGuitar.com

I just posted an interview I did with Robin Trower on GuitarLifeMag.com.

Here’s the direct link: http://www.GuitarLifeMag.com/magazine/?p=48

This is just one of the hundreds of celebrity interviews in my archives, which I’m gradually posting on the site. They’re always informative and inspiring, so go check it out!

When I did this interview a few years back, Robin and I were talking backstage at the Chicago House of Blues. I was shooting a video guitar lesson with him at the time.

I’ll try to get those video clips posted some time soon!