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Sleek Technique

Pentatonic Scale Exercise : Checking Out Your New Neighborhood

More than anything else, it takes practice to become accurate and speedy within any form of scale.

If you are new to the 5-note Pentatonic Scale, the following exercises will not only help you get better at cleanly picking fast runs, but will also help you gain a better sense of the tonal center of the scale and how far away from it you are. As the title said, I call this approach “Checking Out Your New Neighborhood”. First we’ll begin by exploring the C Major Pentatonic Scale. After that, more examples follow, using the A Minor Pentatonic Scale.

Think of the root of the scale as your “home” (in this case, the tonic or root note C), and the other notes of the scale as destinations both up and down the street from where you live. When you first move to a new home, it’s normal to begin exploring your neighborhood by going just a short distance away from home. As you become familiar with your area you gain the confidence to venture further away.

The exercises below use the C Major Pentatonic Scale in the V (5th fret) position to take you a certain number of notes away from your home, first above, then below, then in both directions. Once you’ve gone the specified distance, you turn around and head for home. By the final exercise you will have learned to play an important pattern for two octaves of the entire scale, both ascending and descending.

The note groupings are circled. Repeat each example many times until you feel comfortable with it, then move on to the next one. Do your best to play these exercises at a constant, unvarying tempo (speed). Alternate picking (down and up) is essential.

C Major Penta Neighborhood exerciseAs promised, the following exercises use the A Minor Pentatonic Scale, the Relative Minor scale to the C Major Pentatonic Scale. Scales that are relative to one another share the same notes in the same order, but have different starting notes (more on this in a later post).  You will see how the overall patterns for both scales are indeed the same. The examples proceed in the same fashion. Good luck!A Minor Penta Neighborhood exerciseLater posts will dig a little deeper into the theory and discuss the nature of these scales and where it is appropriate to use them. For now, this post lets you get your feet wet, learning the patterns you’ll need to play lead with speed.

Let that be a lesson to you. 😉

I hope you’ve enjoyed this post. If you did, please feel free to share it with others…I won’t mind.

© 2014 Matthew Woodward

Music Teachers In Ontario

Sleek Technique

It Pays To Be Lazy.

When changing between chords always look for the laziest way. Never lift your fingers too far above or away from the fretboard. Take a moment to think about it, and find the shortest path each finger needs to follow to get where it needs to be in the next chord.

All of your fingers should arrive in the new chord at the same time. If one finger is lagging behind the others, try focusing on that finger by making it move first to the new chord. Usually the other fingers have learned where they must go, and with a little practice the entire change comes together.

The hardest lesson for some folks to learn is: when a finger doesn’t have to move, don’t move it! Why move if you don’t have to? Be lazy. Your chord changes will get faster, and notes can also remain ringing.

For example, if you are changing between G and Em, your 2nd finger should remain in place as an anchor while your other fingers pivot into their new positions. Don’t lift it!

The same is true when changing between F and Dm, where the 2nd finger can again remain in place as an anchor while fingers 1 and 3 pivot into position. Again, don’t lift them!

When changing between C and Am, both the 2nd finger AND the 1st finger can remain in place as anchors while the 3rd finger pivots into position. Again, don’t lift those anchors!

There are many examples of chord changes where it pays to be lazy. Watch your hands and see where you can economize on finger movement. Always try to move your fingers together as a group, lifting them from one chord and landing in the next chord all at the same time. You may be surprised by how much extra work you have been needlessly doing!

Let that be a lesson to you. 😉

If you enjoyed this post, please share it with others. I won’t mind.

© 2014 Matthew Woodward