The ULTIMATE Guide to PENTATONIC SOLOING on GUITAR

0:00 here is position one of the minor pentatonic scale this simple and easyto playay scale is often the Gateway for many guitarists to break into the world of leag guitar and improvising guitar solos like this for many guitarists this style of playing can seem daunting and complex however in this lesson I will guide you step by step through the process of creating your own guitar solos and show you that it can actually be very easy to sound good with very little effort so let's get started as you can see each note in this scale has a number of assigned to it these all refer to the fingering not the Fret numbers to begin with we need a starting note so let's pick the a note on the low E string fifth fret as our scale is called the minor pentatonic scale this will place Us in the key of A minor but we'll get into that in more

0:45 detail later play this note using your first finger next play the note located on the same string but four Frets higher with your fourth finger next jump to the a string and play the first finger followed by the third finger the D string would be the same so Fingers 1 and three the G string again would be Fingers 1 and three the B string would be Fingers 1 and four and the final E string would be Fingers 1 and four also so alt together that would be 1 4 13 13 13 1 4 1 4 so nice and easy try to memorize and practice playing this ascending so playing up the scale and descending coming down the scale until you have a basic grasp of the pattern next we need a backing track to play this scale with you have two options here the first option is to Simply find a backing track on YouTube try searching

1:33 backing track and you'll find hundreds of great sounding tracks to improvise with however and this is very important make sure that it's in the correct key so you might be better specifying backing track in a minor this scale will also work over most blu's backing tracks whether it specifies a or a minor as Blue's Harmony tends to function a bit differently but that's for another lesson the second option is to use a loop pedal to create your own backing track this is my preferred opt op as you can record your own Rhythm track with whatever feel groove or chord you want and not to mention they're lots of fun and a great songwriting tool for those of you that don't already own some kind of loot pedal and have

2:19 never experimented with one of these I'll leave a link in the description if you want to pick up one for yourself okay so we have our scale and we have our backing track so let's put them together next you'll simply want to play this scale over the backing track slowly and listen You'll hopefully notice that every note sounds good for those of you that have not been through this process then this should be a bit of a light bulb moment as you realize that as long as you stick to the scale notes you can't actually play anything that sounds bad now playing this scale up and down obviously sounds good but it doesn't yet sound like a guitar solo so let's experiment with starting and ending in different locations perhaps repeating certain notes and adding Dynamics such as shorter or longer notes or quieter and louder

3:05 notes all of these things help but you may feel that you're lacking Direction and sound a bit lost which brings us to The Next Step the root note is the first note in our minor pentatonic scale this being our a note that all the other notes relate back to ending on this note will give you a phrases a sense of home or resolution there are three places that our root note or a note occurs in this scale you should learn these locations and Center your musical phrases around them this will go a long way towards you sounding less lost when [Music] improvising so we've already discovered the ending on a root note has a sense of resolution so what happens when we play

3:51 a phrase that finishes on any other note in the scale the answer is the exact opposite we create a sense of tension that needs to be resolved so let's call these phrases questions and phrases ending on a root note answers with this concept you could have a musical conversation with yourself adding much more interest into your guitar solos and giving you even more sense of direction when [Music] improvising at this stage you'll want to experiment with decorating your phrases using every technique at your disposal the idea here is not to Simply use technique for technique sake but more to add expression to better represent what

4:38 you're trying to say on the [Music] guitar okay so that's everything you need to know in order to start improvising but we're still missing one vital piece of information how do we play in other Keys besides a the process for playing in other Keys is very simple simply shift the scale pattern until the root note arrives at the desired key for example if we wanted to play in a key of G we would simply shift our scale to the third fret or G note what about the key of B we would simply shift the scale up to the seventh fret or B note if you don't yet know the names of the notes on this string yet

5:24 then now's probably a good time to learn you can watch my lesson on memorizing the fretboard note names to help with this once you've spend SP enough time with these Concepts and you begin to get comfortable with how the scale sounds and what phrases you can produce you may want to break out of this position and start using notes Elsewhere on the fretboard which we'll move on to in the next lesson as usual feel free to like comment and subscribe if you haven't already see you in the next [Music] one here is position two of the minor pentatonic scale using this will allow you to break out of and extend position one of the minor pentatonic scale this will give your guitar solos more range and expand your knowledge of the [Music] fretboard so let's get

6:10 started to learn position two of the minor pentatonic scale you first need to know how it connects with position one so let's look at both positions together as you can see our starting note for position two is the second note of position one you will also notice that both positions share these notes on the fretboard you could view these notes as the glue that connects both position one and two now that we have our starting note we can run through the scale try to memorize and practice this position ascending so playing up the scale and descending coming down the scale until you have a basic grasp of the pattern you could also try ascending position one and then descending position two

6:56 [Music] next to avoid sounding lost or lacking in Direction you will want to identify the root notes within position two as we are in the key of A minor then the root notes would be the a notes located here and here try targeting these root notes or centering your ideas around them to give your phrases a much greater sense of purpose and ending a phrase on one of these root notes will give your phrases a sense of closure or finality [Music]

7:44 [Laughter] [Music] the chances are that if you're learning position two of the minor pentatonic scale then you already have a few goto phrases or licks that you use within position one a great way of becoming more familiar with a new position is to figure out how to transfer these licks into a new location in your new position or [Music] scale so here are three shortcuts to allow you to do this much faster if I draw your attention to the first four notes of the first position of the minor pentatonic scale so a c d and e and then show you the Loc of these

8:30 same notes in position two you will have a quick way of playing identical licks in both locations here's some [Music] examples the four notes on the d and g strings in position one so g a c and D can be played here in position two allowing you to play the same licks in both [Music]

9:23 positions and lastly the four notes on the B and E strings so E G A and C can be played here in position two once again allowing you to play identical licks in both [Music] positions a great exercise for seeing and playing these two positions as one big position is to use slide transitions here is the exercise so predominantly your playing in position one but before jumping to the next string you would slide up to the next available note on the same string but in position two and back down to the starting note in

10:09 position one again extra points if you can do this with one picked note per string using hammer on slides and pull-offs this exercise will give you multiple Pathways in and out of both positions when improvising making two positions seem much more like one big position [Music] changing Keys works exactly the same as it would for position one position two just tags along for the ride just shift both scale patterns together until you arrive at the correct root note that matches the key of the song you're

10:55 playing to here here is position three of the minor pentatonic scale using this new position will'll extend both positions one and two of the minor pentatonic scale expanding your knowledge of the fretboard and allowing you more freedom when soloing across the entire [Music] neck so let's get started to learn position three of the minor pentatonic scale you first need to know how it connects with position two so let's look at both together as you can see our starting note for position three is the second note of position two you will also notice that both positions share these notes on the fretboard you could view these notes as the glue that connects both position two and

11:45 three now that we have our starting note we can run through the scale try to memorize and practice this position ascending so playing up the scale and descending playing down the scale until you have a basic grasp of the pattern [Music] next up to avoid sounding lost when soloing you will need to identify the root notes within position three as we are in the key of A minor then the root notes would be the a notes located here and here when soloing try to Center your phrases around these root notes to give your solos much greater Direction and purpose [Music]

12:36 [Laughter] one issue faced when learning position three is that it's much further away from our comfort zone in position one as most guitarists new to Le guitar will nearly always start a guitar solo in position one this makes position 3 a bit of an afterthought which we might climb up to during a solo only to quick return to our comfort zone once again here is a great way to fix this when beginning a solo you first think of the root note that matches the key of the song in this case a and most guitarists at this stage will gravitate towards the A on the low E string which will then determine where they Place position one and from there they build outwards what we need to do here is create a new Comfort Zone in position three so from now on as a bit

13:23 of a personal challenge when starting a solo don't think where is the root note on the low E string think think where is the root note on the a string and start your solos from this point in position three of the minor pentatonic scale do this until the process feels as effortless as jumping straight into position one to speed up the time it takes to get familiar with this new position let me show you how to transfer any phrases or licks you already play in position one to position three of the minor pentatonic scale in three steps to begin with let's look at the first four notes of the first position of the minor pentatonic scale so a c d and e and now the location of these same notes in position three this will allow

14:09 you to play the same licks in both locations for [Music] example the four notes on the d and g strings in position one so g a a c and d can be played here in position three allowing you to play the same licks in both [Music] positions and lastly the four notes on the B and E strings so E G A and C these

14:54 can be played here in position three once again allowing you to play identical licks in both [Music] positions changing Keys works exactly the same as it would do for position one and two position three just tags along for the ride just shift both scale patterns together until you arrive at the correct rot note that matches the key of the song you're playing to here is position four of the minor pentatonic scale learning this new position will extend positions 1 2 and three of the minor pentatonic scale expanding your knowledge of the fretboard and bringing you one step closer to soloing across the entire neck

15:40 of the guitar so let's get [Music] started to learn position four of the minor pentatonic scale you first need to know how it connects with position three so let's look at both together as you can see our starting note for position four is the second note of position three as you will also notice both positions share these notes on the fretboard you could view these notes as the glue that connects both positions three and four now that we have a starting note we can run through the scale try to memorize and practice this position ascending so playing up the scale and descending playing down the scale until you have a good grasp of the

16:27 pattern don't spend long longer than is necessary running up and down the scale your time is far better spent looking up any backing track and improvising as quickly as possible you'll get to know the scale in a much more deeper and musical level this way and it's a lot more enjoyable you could also use a loot pedal to practice your rhythm guitar chops and Le guitar both together next you'll want to get to know the location of the root notes in position four in this case the a notes located here and here this will give your phrases a greater sense of direction when soloing [Music]

17:18 [Laughter] to speed up the time it takes to become familiar with this new position let me show you how to transfer any phrases or licks you can already play in position one to position four of the minor pentatonic scale in three steps to begin with let's look at the first four notes of the first position of the minor pentatonic scale a c d and e and now the location of these same notes in position four knowing this will allow you to play the same licks in both locations for example [Music]

18:09 the four notes on the d and g strings in position one so g a c and d can be played here in position four allowing you to play the same licks in both positions [Music] and lastly the four notes on the B and E strings so E G A and C can be played here in position four once again allowing you to play identical licks in both [Music]

18:55 positions a great way to get used to playing through multiple positions is to create phrases or licks that pass through different locations of the neck rather than simply staying in one position at a time this solidifies your understanding of the fretboard and allows much more seamless transitions through each position of the minor pentatonic scale here's an example that you could use to travel from position two to position four of the minor pentatonic scale using double stops hammer on pull-offs and slides [Music] changing Keys works exactly the same as it would do for positions 1 2 and three position four just tags along for the ride simply shift all the scale patterns together until you arrive at the correct root note that matches the key of the

19:40 song you're playing to here is position five of the minor pentatonic scale this is the final piece of the puzzle that will allow you to improvise and play leag guitar seamlessly across the entire fretboard by connecting with positions 1 2 3 and four of the minor pentatonic scale so let's get started in this lesson you'll learn how to play position five of the minor pentatonic scale how it connects to position one and four where the root notes are located within this position One Big Lick to connect positions one through to five how to easily transfer licks from position one to position five of the minor pentatonic scale and best of all towards the end of the lesson I will show you that by learning all five

20:26 positions of the minor pentatonic scale you have unintentionally just learned all five positions of the major pentatonic scale so two birds one stone position five of the minor pentatonic scale is by far the easiest to memorize as it's perfectly symmetrical so quickly practice this scale ascending and descending to get the shape under your [Music] fingers position five of the minor pentatonic scale starts from the second note of position four so this means they share these notes on the fretboard position five then simply joins back up with position one sharing these notes on the fretboard this closes our pentatonic

21:12 Loop and allows us to play across the entire fretboard don't spend longer than is necessary running up and down the scale your time is far better spend looking up any backing track and improvising as quickly as possible you'll get to know the scale in a much more deeper and M musical level this way and it's a lot more enjoyable you could also use a loop pedal to practice your rhythm guitar chops and lead guitar both together the root notes in position five of the minor pentatonic scale are located here and here when first learning this scale be sure to also memorize the location of these root notes to help give your phrases a sense of resolution a great way to get used to playing through all five positions is to create phrases or licks that pass through different locations on the neck

21:59 rather than simply staying in one position at a time here's an [Music] example to speed up the time it takes you to become familiar with this new pentatonic pattern let me show you how to transfer any licks you can already play in position one to position five of the minor pentatonic scale in three steps let's look at the first four notes of position one of the minor pentatonic scale so a c d and e and now the location of the same notes in position five knowing this will allow you to play identical licks in both positions for

22:46 example [Music] the four notes on the d and g strings in position one so g a c and d can be played here in position five giving you access to the same licks across both [Music] positions and finally the notes on the B and E strings in position one can be played here in position five

23:33 [Music] at the beginning of this lesson I said that by learning all five positions of the minor pentatonic scale you have unintentionally just learned all five positions of the major pentatonic scale so let me explain how this works you've already done the hard work and learn each pattern of the minor pentatonic scale which we know as positions 1 through to five so all we need to do in order to see this as the five positions of the major pentatonic scale is to shift our perspective so you will notice that position one of the minor pentatonic scale has become position five of the major pentatonic scale making position two of the minor pentatonic scale position one in the major pentatonic scale if this concept seems at all confusing then simply put

24:19 it into practice by searching for a backing track in a major key for instance the key of A and begin improvising by finding the a root note on the low E string as usual but instead of placing position one of the minor pentatonic scale here you would Place position one of the major pentatonic scale here instead again shift your perspective as you will be viewing this as position two of the minor pentatonic scale but in fact in this new roote position we are now viewing it as position one of the major pentatonic scale if you run this scale up and down over a major backing track you will immediately notice that it has a much brighter sound than its minor counterpart and from here it's very easy to change to different positions as they all still connect in exact the same way so don't get too bogged down with the details of which minor pentatonic position is which major pentatonic

25:04 position simply begin improvising and getting used to the sound of this new [Music] [Applause] [Music] scale you may find that most of your phrases you've learned or used within the minor pentatonic scale don't sound quite right within the major pentatonic scale and this will be simply to do with root note locations so here are the locations of the root notes in the major pentatonic scale changing keys in either the minor or major pentatonic scale works exactly the same way just shift all scale patterns together until you arrive at

25:50 the correct root note that matches the key of the song you're playing to if you have any questions in relation to any of the topics covered in this lesson or would like to request a subject for me to cover in future lessons then feel free to leave a comment Down Below in the comment section and if you haven't done so already then give this video a like subscribe and ring the notification Bell see you in the next one