Play Powerful Guitar Solos Using Only 3 shapes!
NOTE: Once you go through this entire workshop and "get it",
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you just don't know where
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO LEARN TO PLAY JUST ONE SCALE THAT'S SO UNIQUE
For each shape, there is a Learn'em track that's pretty slow! Then
And so we begin! We'll start with a very cool Am shape. One shape, played
We'll call this a 1 2 ~ 1 2 3 shape. On the strings with 3 notes, you
So in Am, G, 3rd fret is the first note of the scale shape.
NOTE: When you're soloing, you don't have to start on the G, in Am. You're
YOUR TURN! OK, time to start working on these! Let's get . . . Hands ON!
Here's how you work the drills. You play the 1st track until you mess up!
Ok, THIS WHOLE SECTION IS GOING TO BE PRETTY UNIQUE!
This is what you'd play if you wanted to play them in a series,
Not much text from here on out. You pretty much know the format! Have at it!
These are exactly the same as the Learn'em tracks, except they start slow,
OK, let's have some FUN! It's JAM TIME!
Here are half a dozen tracks just to get you jamming a bit. They are or were
Am standard progression with a bridge.
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you can go directly to the DRILLS PAGE and skip ALL of the text!
But go through it a few times FIRST! Then BOOKMARK the drills page!
Go to Tracks Only DRILLS page
to go NEXT when soloing? Well, in this workshop, you're going to find . . .
THE PATH!
AND SO DYNAMIC THAT YOU COULD LITERALLY JUST RUN THE SCALE OVER AND
OVER, AND IT SOUNDS GREAT!
That's what this workshop is all about! It sounds like this . . .
This is a pretty short workshop. Don't misunderstand. There is PLENTY
to do here! But there won't be a lot of text. Not much at all! And not
a lot to learn. This is pretrty much just a HANDS-ON Workshop!
Ideally, you're here because you're working the full 5 Position Pentatonic
Workshop. THAT'S where you'll learn all you need to know to be able to
play solos all over the neck! This short workshop is designed to work on
WHILE you work the full workshop!
As with most workshops, you go through this one until you can do each
exercise without instructions or prompts. THEN you can go to the DRILLS
page! That page eliminates almost all of the text and extra graphics, and
only have the necessary text or graphics, and the drill tracks. So very
little scrolling!
NOTE: Once you start the exercizes, there's a LOT LESS text!
This one is FUN! NOT GRUELLING! WORK? YEAH! PRACTICE, OF COURSE! BUT . . .
IT'S FUN FROM THE GET-GO! HERE'S WHAT WE'RE SHOOTING FOR . . .
Shapes 1 & 2
You'll learn ONE cool scale that is so unique (yet easy!) you can LITERALLY
just play this scale, from start to finish, and it can be an entire SOLO! And
it won't sound like you're just playing a scale! IT'S MELODIC!
Just one scale, Shape 3, over and over, over a 4 chord progression
Imaging how this can sound if you get creative with it!
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Shapes 1&2
comes the DRILL track. It starts slow, and gets progressively faster
each
iteration.
These are the 2 chord progressions we'll use.
Here are 4 snips (in one track). Each one uses one of the 2 1st shapes
we'll be learning. And there are 2 chord progressions. Both similar.
One is an Am progression, the other a C major progression. Both in the
key of C. Am C F G & C Am F G.
What you'll hear is each one gets progressively brighter, or more "UP".
First is an Am shape over Am C F G, followed by a C major shape over the
same progression. The 3rd clip gets a bit brighter. This time the Am
shape is played over a C progression. And the 4th is the brightest. A C
shape played over a C major progression.
Same minor shape, same major shape, over 2 chord progressions.
Take a look now at the two shapes. There will be a more focused graphic for
each exercize. But I want you to see that we are literally learning only
TWO SHAPES here. And they each cover a HUGE amount of the fretboard!
THREE OCTAVES!
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Because of the B string tuning, there is a half-step SHIFT UP
when going to the 3rd octave in both of the Am/C shapes!
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3 octaves, spanning from fret 3 to fret 12.
SLIDE to the 3rd note with the lead finger. You'll use
fingers 1 and 3, so on the 2nd set of notes with 3 notes, slide finger
3 to the 3rd note. This literally puts you in position to play the next
octave! Then you do it two more times.
On the 3rd octave, you shift the notes UP 1 half-step!
Note that you start this scale on the note before the ROOT!
improvising! You can start on any note, repeat any note, skip over any
note you want! Start the scale shape in the middle, and go up. Start at the
top and go down!
This pattern, like ALL patterns, will sound different over different chords.
It can sound a bit dark, or not so dark. It depends what chord it's playing
over. If played over a minor chord it'll sound dark. Played over a major
chord, it'll sound a little brighter. More "UP".
In all of the exercizes, you play the indicated scale up, then down. We're
only using one minor shape. You'll play it over a minor, and major chord
progression. You'll hear what I mean about the mood changing, even though
you're playing the same notes! Consider this your introduction to modes!
This is what the notes, the sound . . . looks like! The 1st one is the
lead pattern we're playing for the solo. The 2nd one is the actual scale,
played 3 octaves, as you'll do in the DRILLS!
This pattern sounds like this . . .
That's one octave of the pattern. You play the UP pattern 3 times, once
per octave. There are 4 lead in notes, then play it back down. And there
are 2 outro ending notes!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Learn'em Section
Before you do the 1st exercize, how about you play the Am shape with
me a few times. Play the pattern once in all 3 positions, all 3 octaves.
Play the short 4 note lead in. Play it back down, and play the 2 outro notes.
Repeat a few times. Nice and slow. This is the Learn'Em track.
Coming back down, play the 1st 2 notes, then slide down to the 3rd with finger 1.
Now YOU play along with me! Learn'Em Exercize 1
This is the scale played straight up, then down. You'll work on this in
the DRILLS. It's also played after the last iteration of each exercize.
OK, first we'll do the full scale in a "Learn'em" track. Nice and slow, 3X.
OK, it was 4 times, Just checking to see if you're still awake! Ha!!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now lets take a look at shape 2. Same notes, but in C major. C D E G A
We'll call this a 1 2 3 ~ 1 2 shape. Played the same way as the minor
shape. Slide to the 3rd note on strings using 3 notes. We'll be moving
along more quickly now, because we covered most of the "WHY" and
"HOW" issues. Here's what the major shape looks like.
Learn'em Track: Play it nice and slow!
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Drill'em Section
This is the WORK part of the workshop!
Then STOP, start the track again. Do this 3 times! Do Not Practice
SLOPPY! Each time you do this routine, you'll get farther into each track.
Then go to the next track. Do them ALL the same way! While you're learning
the shapes in the Learn'em section, it's OK to mess up! But now, you cannot
practice playing a track faster than you can play it accurately!
Cheating will only hurt you in the long run! Practicing playing sloppy
will increase your learning curve time! And will not improve your overall
skills! You'll just be learning how to play more stuff, poorly!
So when you mess up, STOP, start the track again from the beginning.
Do it 3 times! (More, if you want! But 3 times minimum.) Then go to
the next track!
So, you'll play each of these tracks, or part of each track, 3 times!
If you aren't working the full 5-Position Pentatonic Workshop, then this
workshop can be your daily WARMUP! Run through each of the DRILLS before
you start each daily practice session.
NOTE: There are MANY tutorials and workshops that help you with ALL
skill sets. How to practice, and what to practice daily! And there is
a very good workshop with warm up finger exercizes that will help you
build muscle memory! And hand & finger strength!
Here's a link to the workshops and tutorials directory. If you can't find
a specific one you want, or if you'd like to suggest a topic, email me!
Workshop and Tutorials Directory Index Page
Email me any time! ~/~
Wayne on Facebook
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OK, let's get to work! Each track is defined in the title of the track.
Each track plays a scale shape 4 times. Each time the speed increases!
Just go as far as you can without messing up! Each time, each track!
Before working on the scale shapes, work on the full scales! These will
warm you up! Plus, it's a good workout! And it's part of each DRILLS Track! So . . .
Am Shape Full Scale
C Shape Full Scale
Scale Shapes
Am Scale Shape over Am C F G
Dark
C Scale Shape over Am C F G
Less dark
Am Shape over C Am F G
Slightly brighter
C Scale Shape over C Am F G
Bright
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Shape 3
Each of the 5 sets of note patterns are both, the same, and totally different!
What's the same is . . . all 5 positions have 3 sets of 2 notes, fingered the
same. Fingers 1 and 3! Pretty simple, right!
But, it's the difference that will make this a power house! Having only to use
fingers 1 and 3 for all 5 positions is cool, too! But HERE'S THE THING.
All the notes aren't always on adjacent strings! Some patterns are. Some
skip strings! As in, you'll play fingers 1 & 3 on non-adjacent strings!
What's really going to happen here is . . . You will be forced to get
creative to avoid the over simplicity of the patterns!
These patterns require a lot of "doodling" to get a good handle on them.
But the doodling will soon turn into cool runs, licks, etc. because much
of what you did above, and in the full Pentatonic 5-Position workshop
relates! You'll get it once you start working these 5 cool patterns. Or,
I should say, the 5 variations of the same 1 3 pattern!
But they open doors! And easily allow you to play solos that don't sound
like most of what you've played so far. The result will be . . .
You'll sound unique, different, creative, and NOT BORING!
There won't be a lot of text for this section. You do the Learn'em and
DRILLS the same way as the others above. So mainly, just a bit of text,
sample audio, some graphics, Learn'em practice tracks, and the usual
DRILLS tracks. But THEN . . .
JAM TRACKS! There is a section of tracks for the above 2 shapes, and for
these tracks as well! So let's just jump in!
The above graphic looks like a typical scale. But it's not! It's 5 iterations
of fingers 1 and 3, each played in TWO frets each! 5 different ways to
play 1 3! Like this . . .
Let's hear what happens when you play each one in series! Listne to it now.
There's a slight variation on the end.
Usually, just playing a scale shape up and down over a chord progression
doesn't sound "musical". But did you hear how just literally playing the
5 positions of this shape, one after the other, created various moods! All
throughout the simple Am C F G progression, there was tension built, then
release! The "melody", albeit, just the scale shapes played in order, up
and down, changed the mood of each measure.
This variety, because of the uniqueness of the order the notes fall in
the shape - IE the skipped strings! - creates a unique movement. And it
doesn't sound boring because it's not predictable!
The audio track plays each of the 5 positions. Each one plays up, then back
down. So you hear 5 short 6-note scale shapes in succession. Followed by
all 5 played in what we'll call . . . The Path!
one long scale shape. I'll show you the path!
This is what the sound looks like. First the break out, each one separate, The
2nd one is the path, played like the above graphic.
OK, now listen to it again! Listen for mood changes, tension and release.
OK, let's get . . .
Shape 3 Learn'em
1
2
3
4
5
Full Scale
Long 1
Long 2
Shape 3 DRILLS!
then speed up each iteration.
1
2
3
4
5
Full Scale
Long 1
Long 2
Holy smokes! You did it! BRAVO!
JAM TRACKS!
popular tunes, in different keys. I changed them to C or Am. BUT . . .
Here is a link to the Jam Tracks in the Full 5-Position Pentatonic Workshop.
There are more than 4 dozen tracks on this page! The key is indicated in the
track file name.
Wayne's Corner ~ 49 Jam Tracks
Am cool jam over Am7 and D7 (No chord changes)
Act Naturally C
Cool Blues in C
Old Am Blues
BB King at his best! The Thrill Is Gone, but in Am
(It's on my Jam Tracks Jukebox page linked above in Bm.)
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Back to the Tutorials Directory Index Page
5-Position Pentatonic MASTER CLASS Workshop
5-Position Pentatonic MASTER CLASS Workshop
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