The pentatonic scale is one of the most
common, useful, and important scales in
music.
One easy-to-use technique is to simply go up (or down)
any 3 notes in the pentatonic scale and repeat it in a triplet
pattern.
These kinds of licks have been used
over and over in rock and blues guitar.
To make more interesting licks, try
combining different sets of repeating
groups of 3 notes.
In this example, I show you a lick
I just created using this.
It lies very simply in the root position
of the A pentatonic scale.
The fast notes are eighth note triplets
at 200 bpm, which is equivalent speed
to 16th notes at 150 bpm, so its not
super super fast… but still pretty quick.
At first, trying playing it slower — it
will still sound cool.
I use hammer-ons and pull-offs to increase
the ease of playing at speed. I don’t have
any set way to pick this… Use upstrokes
or downstrokes as you feel is comfortable
but make sure to use the hammerons and
pulloffs.
[audio:https://www.claudejohnson.com/blog/audio/lick1-mar10-2011.mp3]
Get more lead guitar ideas in my course: Killer Guitar Control Secrets!
