How to Play an Eric Johnson Lick – Hexatonic Scale Lick

One thing I never heard people talking about is Hexatonic scales, Usually we either deal with pentatonics (5 notes), or diatonics (7 notes), but hexatonics fall right in the middle.

You can think of it as either a diatonic minus 1 note, or a pentatonic with 1 extra note.

This particular hextaonic scale that I’m showing here (minor pentatonic plus the major 2nd) has a cool sound and you can create some “Eric Johnson” sounding licks.

Check it out.

<figure class="wp-block-image"><a href="https://guitarcontrol.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan-18-2013.jpg" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img decoding="async" width="643" height="175" src="https://guitarcontrol.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan-18-2013.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-1742" title="jan-18-2013" srcset="https://guitarcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan-18-2013.jpg 643w, https://guitarcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan-18-2013-600x163.jpg 600w, https://guitarcontrol.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/jan-18-2013-300x81.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 643px) 100vw, 643px" /></a></figure>  Hey, guys Claude Johnson here with Guitar Control, today I want to show you this really cool lick that I’ve discovered on the fret board. It’s got like an Eric Johnson tonality and it goes like this.  What’s special about this lick and what gives it that sound, is that I’m using a special scale, which is a hexatonic scale. Hexatonic is a six notes, and I’m sure you’ve all heard of Pentatonic scale, which is a five notes. If you haven’t, please check-out guitarcontrol.com/lead, get up to speed on the basics.  This scale is like the G pentatonic scale, but I’m adding the A note with it. So think of your G pentatonic scale on the 10th fret of the A string. Just add in that A, six-note scale. We’re going to be hitting this A here and here.  The lick goes like this. You start off on the 10th fret of the D string and then 10th to 12th. Go to the G string again, 10th to 12th. Your first four notes are like this. Then you go up to your B string and you go 11th to 10th. That’s where you’re hitting that A. So you can emphasize that with a little bit of vibrato, then you just go back down.  When you get back down to your D you can use sweep picking to hit your G string again. So you have this and then again, you can hit that low A coming down real slow.  Check the tabs.  I just want to mention that there are different ones in hexatonics,. A real common one is the Southern Rock Scale, for example if you’re in A pentatonic you can add-in the 4th. So you have that 4th. In this case, we’re not adding the 4th, we’re adding the 2nd. In both cases it’s almost like a major/minor scale, but with one fewer note, or you can think of it as a pentatonic adding a note.  I hope that made sense to you. If you need more information on all kind of scales and how they connect, check out Killer Guitar Control Secrets at guitarcontrol.com/secrets and I’ll decode a lot of stuff for you, including major versus minor pentatonics and all that cool stuff.  Anyway, this is just a cool lick. I hope you enjoyed it.