Mastering Pentatonics Advanced

There's only one exercise in this module. We're going to do some more intensive work on assimilating the five shapes of Lydian pentatonic in A, using a longer and more complex variation pattern.

This module we're going to study some string skipping ideas using Lydian pentatonics. This is another good way to strengthen your knowledge of the shapes, and it's also a cool way of moving from simple shape memorisation to something that sounds a bit more like proper licks.

This module we're going to start work on what I call "double pentatonic shapes". The idea here is that you combine two shapes to create 3-note-per-string shapes. This means there is an overlap between the highest note on one string and the lowest note on the next string. For example, in A minor pentatonic in Shape 1 (5th fret), you'd play A-C-D on the low E string and then D-E-G on the A string. But as long as you're aware of this, the double pentatonic approach can yield some really interesting lines.

There's more about double pentatonic shapes in my JTC Pentatonic Masterclass, but these exercises are all new.

In this module, we're going to work on some new variation patterns to build your facility and flexibility with the combined double pentatonic shapes.

One of the cool things you can do with double pentatonic shapes is to create arpeggios. The wide intervals (4th or major 3rd) between the highest and lowest notes on each string are ideal for this.

For the next two modules, we're going to apply pentatonic substitution to 2-5-1 progressions, starting here in a major key. To quickly review the basic concept, the 2-5-1 (or II-V-I) progression is a very common harmonic device, running through the 2nd and 5th and 1st chords in a key.

In C major, that would give us D minor, G major and C major, although it's more likely that you'd use 7th chords: Dm7, G7, Cmaj7. In jazz and fusion, the G7 (V, or dominant chord) will often be altered, with an added b9th, #9th, b5th or #5th.

In many cases, you could simply use the major pentatonic of the key to play through all three chords. In the example above, that would be C major pentatonic (C D E G A) and it'd sound ok over those chords. However, for a more interesting sound, we're going to approach each chord individually, choosing a pentatonic scale to target cool notes. Here's what we'll do...

Dm7 - A minor pentatonic (A C D E G).

This functions as Dsus2 pentatonic (D E G A C)

G7alt - Bbm6 pentatonic (Bb Db Eb F G)

This contains five notes from the important G Superlocrian scale; the root (G), minor 7th (F) and three altered notes: #9th (A#/Bb), b5th (Db) and #5th (D#/Eb)

Cmaj7 - E minor pentatonic (E G A B D)

We also talked about this in the Intermediate course; playing a minor pentatonic based on the major 3rd of a major chord gives a maj13 effect.

We applied pentatonic scale substitutions to the major-key 2-5-1 progression in Module 7, so now let's do the same for a minor key.

We're in the key of D minor here, so our basic triad progression would be Em7b5, A7, Dm7. We'll add altered notes to the dominant chord (A7) as usual, and we'll also substitute Gm9 for Em7b5. These two chords have several notes in common (Bb, D, G) so this substitution works well.

As before, it's perfectly possible to use one pentatonic scale (D minor) to play over this whole progression, but we're going to make things more interesting, using pentatonic substitutions to target cool notes in the chords. Here are the scales we'll use...

Gm7 - D minor pentatonic (D F G A C)

This functions as Gsus2 pentatonic (G A C D F)

A7alt - Bbm6 pentatonic (Bb Db Eb F G)

This gives us the major 3rd (C#/Db) and minor 7th (G) of the basic A7, plus some altered notes from the important A Superlocrian scale... the b9th (Bb), b5th (Eb) and #5th (E#/F).

Dm7 - A minor pentatonic (A C D E G)

This functions as Dsus2 pentatonic (D E G A C)

Here's another new pentatonic concept. Taking the regular minor pentatonic, we're going to raise the 4th to the #4th.. switch the natural 4th one half step up to the #4...

A minor pentatonic: A C D E G (root, minor 3rd, 4th, 5th, minor 7th)

A minor #4 pentatonic: A C D# E G (root, minor 3rd, #4th, 5th, minor 7th)

This scale is great for getting more of an outside sound, especially in Dorian situations.

For this module we're going to turn our attention to technique, exploring some ideas for using hybrid picking with pentatonic scales. This is the kind of thing Richie Kotzen does a lot, so let's see how he does it...

We're now going to look at some patterns with only one note per string. This puts more demands on your picking hand, but there are several ways you could play these exercises. Luca plays with fingers only, using thumb, index and middle fingers (p, i, m). You could also use hybrid picking (pick, i, m), alternate picking or sweep picking.

We're going to experiment with some outside notes. One of the easiest ways of generating cool outside sounds (and, most importantly, returning INSIDE) is to move simple patterns symmetrically. In this case we're going to take a triad from the A minor pentatonic (A C D E G) and then move it up and down by different intervals without changing the triad shape.