You’ve probably heard this one a few times… or perhaps even said it yourself. Beginner guitarists, if they can get past those first few months of agony, will delve into the famous five pentatonic shapes be they major or minor,…
Category: Pentatonics
An Alternative to the 5 Pentatonic Shapes
The 5 pentatonic shapes are a staple of learning rock or blues guitar, though truth be told most guitarists generally use 3 of them at the most. In our latest book, ‘Woodshedder’s Guide to Guitar Scales‘, we reduced the number…
Pentatonics Pro – All 330 Pentatonic Scale Combinations
Pentatonics Pro is a side project I’ve been working on for a while now which involved mapping out the 330 possible pentatonic scales into a collection of scale patterns (combinations of 5 intervals) along with a method to explore them…
How to Play Flowing Eric Clapton Style Pentatonic Lines
There’s no doubt about it, Eric Clapton is possibly one of the most influential guitarists of all time and while he tends to get overlooked these days in favor of the the more technical players, there’s a lot you can…
How to Avoid Cliché Pentatonic Licks
While the pentatonic scale is an incredibly useful tool for guitar players of the rock and blues variety, the standard method of learning the scale in five box shapes doesn’t do a lot to distinguish you from the next guy….
From Pentatonics to Modes in 5 Minutes
This is a common problem among guitar players: they get very good at getting some great licks and runs from major and minor pentatonic scales, then decide to learn modes and it all goes to shit. This is mainly because…
How to Create Custom Pentatonic Scales
I’m a huge fan of pentatonic scales, but not just the major and minor ones; there’s so much more you can do with pentatonics. After all, pentatonic means 5 tones—any 5 tones—and there are literally thousands of combinations available, if…
Outside Playing: How Not to Get Lost
I love outside playing, the more outrageous the better. I think it was Allan Holdsworth who called it, ‘playing all the rude notes’, and he was definitely right. These are the notes that stick out like a sore thumb but…
How to Approach a Guitar Solo like David Gilmour
I’ve never really been into learning other people’s guitar solos note-for-note, so you won’t find a whole lot of those type of articles on this blog. What I do like to do occasionally is take a closer look at how…
How NOT to Sound Like Everyone Else
You’ve probably had the ‘pleasure’ of being in a guitar shop and hearing someone noodling in A minor or E minor pentatonic while trying out a guitar, so much so that you probably recognize those scales without even looking at…