GUEST COLUMNIST:

BILL HUDSON

Pentatonics


Hey Folkz!

My name is Bill Hudson, and Iīd like to show you some ideas using pentatonics. Ok, you probably saw a gazillion columns talking about it before, and they all look the same showing different shapes, fast licks, etc..etc.. but Iīd like to come up with something new here. First of all, I donīt like to study SHAPES… for me, itīs smarter to UNDERSTAND the scale and find its notes along the neck.

T II III V VI

There ya go. A Pentatonic scale. I donīt care about all those shapes and stuff, since itīs all derived from this T II III V VI pattern. Can you tell me HOW the pentatonics were created? Letīs get a Major Scale… C for instance:

C D E F G A B

Since there are 7 notes, 5 are missing, right? Yeah… you guessed!!

C# D# F# G# A#

Ladies and Gentleman: THE F# PENTATONIC! Interesting, huh? Now, you can add one more note (the minor third) which is called the “blue note”. For me, it sounds way cooler when playing fast, but you can either use it or not. Letīs take C pentatonic as an example:

C D E G A

If you add the blue note, itīs gonna be:

C D D# E G A

Ok… īnuff talking… letīs PLAY. Iīll show you some cool ideas using pentatonics.

Example 1: These are the last 3 bars of one of my solos. Notice the odd groups of notes in the last bar. Thatīs because I never wrote the score for this solo. Itīs just CLOSE to what Iīm actually playing.


Example 2: Another of my solos. The first section is a little bit fast but this is more about power than technique. The last part isnīt a pentatonic, though. Thatīs why it isnīt transcribed.


Those examples are not difficult to play, just cool ideas using pentatonics. Iīll come up with harder stuff next time.

ROCK ON!


Bill Hudson is the guitarist in Hard Rock/Heavy Metal band “The Supremacy” and a guitar teacher. Are you interested in lessons? Any questions or doubts about the column? Just let me know: bill_hudsongtr@yahoo.com.