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About the Author
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Salvatore Vecchio is an Italian guitarist and columnist for guitar magazines. He is currently playing with two bands, Ivory and Attitude.
Vecchio is working on his debut instrumental rock/fusion CD.
Visit Vecchio's web site.
Send comments or questions to Salvatore Vecchio.
© Salvatore Vecchio
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Hello everyone! I am here on Guitar Nine with a new technical exercise.
The common pentatonic boxes are in the hands of every guitarist, but often, many people ask me exercises using pentatonic scales in different shapes combinations. Even if I know that there are many lessons about ways to use the pentatonics, a different way to play them could be always a nice surprise. Guitarists like Joey Tafolla, Eric Johnson, Paul Gilbert and many others use interesting mixed patterns, so I'm going to explain here an example of how simple penta- positions can be used.
The three examples below are in the key of D major, with the famous "blue note" added.
A good exercise would be playing them using both alternate picking and legato -- even tapping. Every example changes the beat accent, and in the last one we have also some string skipping passages.
Playing them clean is the first step, as always, it is important to start slowly, without using your distortion pedal, in order to hear every single note you play.
The metronome time at 150 is just symbolic, for any kind of questions, or for buying my new instrumental Attitude CD, entitled "Overflowing" (available through Guitar Nine Records), you can contact me through my site www.salvatorevecchio.too.it. Ciao!
Gtr I (E A D G B E) - Pentavariations
Q=150
4/4
Exercise 1
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
|---------------------------------------------------------------------------12-13-14-12-|
|---------------------------------------------------------10-12-15-10-12-15-------------|
|-----------------------------------------9-10-11-9-10-11-------------------------------|
|---------------------------7-9-12-7-9-12-----------------------------------------------|
|---------------7-8-9-7-8-9-------------------------------------------------------------|
|-5-7-10-5-7-10-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
~~ Exercise 2 ~~~~
S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S S
|-13-14----|-------------------------------------------------12-14-13-12----|
|-------15-|-------------------------------------10-15-12-10-------------15-|
|----------|---------------------------9-11-10-9----------------------------|
|----------|------------------7-12-9-7--------------------------------------|
|----------|----------7-9-8-7-----------------------------------------------|
|----------|-5-10-7-5-------------------------------------------------------|
Exercise 3
E E E E E
|------------
|------------
|------------
|------------
|------9-8-7-
|-5-10-------
~~
E E E E E E E E E E E E E E
|------------------------14-13-12-------|----|
|------------------10-15----------12S15-|----|
|--------11-10-9------------------------|----|
|---7-12---------9----------------------|----|
|---------------------------------------|----|
|-7-------------------------------------|----|
Duration Legend
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W - whole; H - half; Q - quarter; E - 8th; S - 16th; T - 32nd; X - 64th; a - acciaccatura
+ - note tied to previous; . - note dotted; .. - note double dotted
Uncapitalized letters represent notes that are staccato (1/2 duration)
Irregular groupings are notated above the duration line
Duration letters will always appear directly above the note/fret number it represents the
duration for. Duration letters with no fret number below them represent rests. Multi-
bar rests are notated in the form Wxn, where n is the number of bars to rest for. Low
melody durations appear below the staff
Tablature Legend
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h - hammer-on
p - pull-off
b - bend
pb - pre-bend
r - bend release (if no number after the r, then release immediately)
/\ - slide into or out of (from/to "nowhere")
s - legato slide
S - shift slide
- natural harmonic
[n] - artificial harmonic
n(n) - tapped harmonic
~ - vibrato
tr - trill
T - tap
TP - trem. picking
PM - palm muting
\n/ - tremolo bar dip; n = amount to dip
\n - tremolo bar down
n/ - tremolo bar up
/n\ - tremolo bar inverted dip
= - hold bend; also acts as connecting device for hammers/pulls
<> - volume swell (louder/softer)
x - on rhythm slash represents muted slash
o - on rhythm slash represents single note slash
Misc Legend
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| - bar
|| - double bar
||o - repeat start
o|| - repeat end
*| - double bar (ending)
: - bar (freetime)
$ - Segno
& - Coda
Tempo markers - = BPM(8/16=s8/s16), where s8 = swing 8ths, s16 = swing 16ths
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