Guitar soloing and improvisation - Lesson Two

Overlap and Glue

Well, here we are again, ready for another round.�To carry on from last month's column I'd like to introduce you to another Major Scale pattern.�Let's be unpredictable and instead of going for pattern 2, we'll look at pattern 5.�

You'll notice that the right side of pattern 5 holds the same structure (one octave higher) as the left side of pattern 1 from last month's column.� This makes it easy to visualize overlapping the two patterns, then just "glue" them together and you've got a larger block of notes to work with.

As you're looking at pattern 5 of the Major Scale, you'll see that I've got the root notes circled (as I do with my other patterns).� If you were to ignore the circled notes and play pattern 5 as if the lowest note were the root (1 1/2 steps below the Major Scale root), you would actually be playing the Natural Minor scale.� The Natural Minor scale employs the same notes as its relative Major Scale!� In our example, the "E" Natural Minor scale has the same notes (different focus) as the "G" Major Scale.

[Lesson 1]   [Lesson 2]   [Lesson 3] [Lesson 4]   [Lesson 5]   [Lesson 6]  

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Pat Baxter is a recording artist and author of the guitar instruction book called "Rockin' The Modes".

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