War Admiral
New member
This is some things I have come up with in my own practicing sessions to break out of boxes or positional playing.
Once you know all your Mode patterns you can easily learn all your pentatonic patterns by simply extracting 2 notes from the Major scale. Well take the G major E minor scale and take out the F# and the C. Now you have all your pentatonic patterns all over the fretboard just like your modes. I like to think of this as the skeleton scale of the modes since you can always add back either the F# or C or both when you want for colour. Are you still with me? Good.
Now when you do this as you can see in these pentatonic patterns (5 of them) there is always 2 notes per string.
Instead of whacking off going up and down these patterns, try doing 4 note arpeggios using 2 notes on 1 string and 2 more notes on the next.
Ex. desending lick. G-E 12th position on the 1st string then B-A on the 2nd string. Repeat the G-E on the 3rd string and the B-A on the 4th string...etc. Play these licks in all 5 postions by just moving up or down on the note in the scale but following the scale. EX. position #2 going up would be A-G on the first string and D-B on the 2nd string and so on. Play these descending and ascending.
Now we go to the same 2 note per string 4 note arpeggios technique for your Dominant 7th's, Major 7th's and Minor 7th's. Same deal here but you will have to add the F# or C when needed.
EX. F#-G on the 6th string then B-D on the 5th string then F#-G on the 4th string...etc. This will be always the pattern for a Major 7th arp in this case GMaj7.
Going up to the next chord...
EX. G-A on the 6th string then C-E on the 5th string then G-A on the 4th string...etc. This will be always the pattern for a minor 7th arp in this case for Am7.
Now just keep going up through all the chords. Always try to be aware of where you are with your arpeggio in relation to your parent scale. So as soon as you want to bust out of your arpeggio pattern you know exactly where the scale is. If your in the Dorian(m7) or Phrygian(m7) or Lydian(Maj7) etc. follow? You will always have your options layed out for you this way and will never be lost!!
You can get some killer licks going using this technique. hammering, pull offs, sequencing...etc. Its also gets you around the neck real fast!
I'll stop for now and add more rut busters at another time.
Once you know all your Mode patterns you can easily learn all your pentatonic patterns by simply extracting 2 notes from the Major scale. Well take the G major E minor scale and take out the F# and the C. Now you have all your pentatonic patterns all over the fretboard just like your modes. I like to think of this as the skeleton scale of the modes since you can always add back either the F# or C or both when you want for colour. Are you still with me? Good.
Now when you do this as you can see in these pentatonic patterns (5 of them) there is always 2 notes per string.
Instead of whacking off going up and down these patterns, try doing 4 note arpeggios using 2 notes on 1 string and 2 more notes on the next.
Ex. desending lick. G-E 12th position on the 1st string then B-A on the 2nd string. Repeat the G-E on the 3rd string and the B-A on the 4th string...etc. Play these licks in all 5 postions by just moving up or down on the note in the scale but following the scale. EX. position #2 going up would be A-G on the first string and D-B on the 2nd string and so on. Play these descending and ascending.
Now we go to the same 2 note per string 4 note arpeggios technique for your Dominant 7th's, Major 7th's and Minor 7th's. Same deal here but you will have to add the F# or C when needed.
EX. F#-G on the 6th string then B-D on the 5th string then F#-G on the 4th string...etc. This will be always the pattern for a Major 7th arp in this case GMaj7.
Going up to the next chord...
EX. G-A on the 6th string then C-E on the 5th string then G-A on the 4th string...etc. This will be always the pattern for a minor 7th arp in this case for Am7.
Now just keep going up through all the chords. Always try to be aware of where you are with your arpeggio in relation to your parent scale. So as soon as you want to bust out of your arpeggio pattern you know exactly where the scale is. If your in the Dorian(m7) or Phrygian(m7) or Lydian(Maj7) etc. follow? You will always have your options layed out for you this way and will never be lost!!
You can get some killer licks going using this technique. hammering, pull offs, sequencing...etc. Its also gets you around the neck real fast!
I'll stop for now and add more rut busters at another time.
