Guitar Tips by Angelo Jannotti : Pentatonic

Hello, this will kick off my guitar tips column. In the following months, we will cover a variety of subjects, including pentatonics, scales and modes, rhythm playing, studio and live recording, song writing, and more. The focus of this column will be dedicated to giving you the tools, for developing your own unique sound and style.

Having said that, have you ever noticed, as guitar players, we all tend to play the same licks and phrases? For instance, when we're in everybody's favorite five note scale, it's the infamous pentatonic. We have our standard language (i.e. bends, double stops, triplets, unison bends, etc.). The question to ask yourself is, is there anything you play that is your own, or are you caught in the mind set, that everything that you play, has to be a lick or a phase you've copped from a record? Chuck Berry, Jimi Hendrix, Jeff Beck, and Stevie Ray Vaughn, to name a few, stretched and pushed the envelope of blues based guitar language, as well as, breaking new ground musically and sonically.

Inspired by these and other greats, I developed an approach and exercise that I've been using for some time. It is simply this: for every lick or phrase I learn, I create two of my own. You'd be surprised at the stuff you can come up with, when you tap your right brain. Another thing to do is, put up a twelve bar blues loop, or any chord sequence, on a machine, like the Boss DR-5 rhythm section, and play for twenty minutes or a half-hour straight. You're either going to repeat yourself, or break some new ground. If you don't have a machine available, jamming with a friend or band mate can be great. The main objective is to push yourself and have fun doing it.

Remember, every guitarist, including yourself, has a unique voice and talent. It's up to you to reach within, and tap some of your own unlimited potential. The only limitations you have, exist within your imagination (at least that's what the voices in my head keep telling me).

Enough talk, here are a couple of examples of pentatonics, from a different angle. We will try an intervallic approach, using perfect and imperfect or altered fifths. These are a few of my favorites.

Ex. 1 is a minor pentatonic sequence, ascending in fifths, key of A, in the fifth position.

Ex. 2 is the same scale and sequence, starting on the D string, and ending with a whole step bend. Making it more of a lick or phrase, rather than just a sequence. Next time, we will talk about more intervallic pentatonic licks and tricks.

P.S. Using the approach mentioned earlier, you should have a total of six licks and sequences.