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Improve Your Soloing Mixing Minor Scales And Pentatonic Scales
Pro Tips:
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Pro Tip:
Use backing tracks to work on individual scale patterns.
Make all the notes as even as possible.
You can also practice alternate picking with these exercises.
You could also practice soloing over the backing tracks.
For this lesson we are trying to connect the five patterns of the E minor pentatonic scale with the seven patterns of the E minor scale. This is a useful way to improve your knowledge of the fretboard as well as giving you a ton of new options for playing melodies and soloing in a minor key. In this example we are doing all of these in the key of E minor.
I am numbering the five patterns of the pentatonic scale as the note fall in the key. The E minor scale is E F# G A B C D E.
The E minor pentatonic scale is E G A B D E, which is the same scale with the second and fourth notes removed. Pattern one of the scale just simply starts on E, Pattern three starts on G, Pattern four on A, and so on.
For the E minor scale patterns I am taking the pattern numbers from the G major scale. If you see that the G major and E minor scale are each others relative major and minor, you also see that these two scales share the same notes. G major scale is G A B C D E F# G. E minor scale is E F# G A B C D E. Same exact notes. For the sake of consistently and trying to keep things simple I group relative major and minor scales together. it’s pretty common that guitar players tend to learn pentatonic scales as minor and major scales as major. Learning how to relate relative major and minor will close those gaps between these two worlds quite easily.
For this exercise I am using five groupings to help memorize all the scales.
Starting from F# and G
Pattern 3 pentatonic
Pattern 7 major
Pattern 1 major
Starting from A
Pattern 4
Pattern 2 major
Starting from B and C
Pattern 5 pentatonic
Pattern 3 major
Pattern 4 major
Starting from D
Pattern 7 pentatonic
Pattern 5 major
Starting from E
Pattern 1 pentatonic
Pattern 6 major
With this exercise using these scale patterns as well hammer-ons and pull-offs its a really good way to improve your soloing.
Free Demo Video
The video below is an example of the videos that are available for this exercise. For Paid Members, this section includes a commentary video that explains each exercise in full. Additionally, each exercise is also presented as videos where the exercise is played in 10+ tempos. Sign up today to get full access to all the videos.
Backing Tracks
Most exercises include backing tracks for you to practice with. They are also provided in the same tempos as the videos. Backing tracks are available for paid members only and are downloadable MP3 files.
Transcriptions
Every exercise includes a transcription in standard notation as well as guitar tab. The transcriptions are presented online and are also available for download as a PDF for printing or saving to your computer. The transcriptions are available for Paid Members of PracticeTheGuitar.com
