Mutant Blues! How to Modify the Minor Pentatonic Scale to Create Something New, Exotic and Twisted

How to modify the DNA of the beloved minor pentatonic scale to create a new, exotic, twisted musical species.

Push any rock guitar player into a corner, and it’ll be their command over killer minor pentatonic licks that’ll aid them in their fight to break free. In almost any modern musical situation, licks and melodies based on the minor pentatonic scale will fit unquestionably over any minor-key harmony and blend in with ease. When we play with these scales that we learned early on (they’re also played by many of our heroes when they’re at their most “real” and guttural), listeners feel comfortable with their simplistic construction (the scale is made of all of the “strongest” notes in the key) and their two-notes-per-string fingerings make patterns, riffs and licks relatively easy to play.


But what if you were to shift a note or two and come up with an innovative, uncharted, exotic, yet somehow familiar framework for untapped creative musical endeavors using basic ideas you’re already very familiar and comfortable with, but in an entirely new way? And what if each of those new frameworks had a unique, individual personality and musical power that could act on its own or be combined as a team to create a guitar-playing superpower? Enter the world of mutant pentatonics.


FIGURE 1 depicts the baseline template that our various evolutionary, or should I say “Frankenstein-ian,” offshoots will be built from, the D minor pentatonic scale, played in the standard 10th-position, two-notes-per-string “box” pattern. The scale is composed of the notes D (the root), F (the minor, or “flatted,” third), G (the perfect fourth), A (the perfect fifth) and C (the minor, or “flatted,” seventh).


Now let’s see what happens if we alter just one note. FIGURE 2 shows the same basic scale pattern, but with the minor third (three frets above the root) raised to the major third (four frets), giving it a bluesy, dominant sound. Players like Joe Bonamassa and Marty Friedman are fond of this sound, and Dimebag Darrell used the scale extensively in his solo on the song “Walk.” Try playing this “Mixolydian-pentatonic” scale over a dominant seventh chord with the same root. 


[Be sure to check out the accompanying audio files for this lesson, which include the basic scale pattern for each figure, as notated here, followed by an improvised, "real-world" lead based on that same note set and fingering pattern.]




FIGURE 3 effectively describes the sound of the D Dorian mode (D E F G A B C) that is available with a different slight shift in the minor pentatonic box, substituting the major sixth (B, in this case) for the minor seventh (C). Use this pattern when you’re channeling Carlos Santana or Slash.


Our next example (FIGURE 4) is based on the blues scale, but instead of adding the diminished fifth, or “b5,” Ab, to the pentatonic scale, the b5 replaces the 5, setting up a more sinister but equally “open”-sounding five-note framework that is guaranteed to garner attention when used to set a mood. This scale, which I call D Locrian-pentatonic, is good for getting a menacingly dark, George Lynch- or Jeff Beck-type vibe. It also works great when played over a Bb7 chord in the key of D minor, as the Ab note becomes the minor, or “flat,” seven of that chord.


Moving in a more major direction, FIGURE 5 shifts our tonal center up a perfect fourth, to G, and channels the #4 sound of the Lydian mode (with the C# note), as well as the b7 of Mixolydian (via the F note). This doubly-mutated scale can more easily be seen as D minor pentatonic scale with a “flatted root” (C# instead of D). Try this five-note scale over a G major- or dominant-type chord when you’re looking for an exotic Lydian/Mixolydian feel, à la Steve Vai or Joe Satriani. Or use it to evoke the D harmonic minor scale with a slight twist and more open sound over a Dm or A7 chord. Coolness!



FIGURE 6 offers another, different double mutation to the original D minor pentatonic scale by raising, or “sharping,” both the D root and the minor third, F, a half step, to Eb and F#, respectively. The resulting note set (Eb F# G A C) offers a twisted, diminished seven- or altered-dominant-type sound may best be described as an “Yngwie Malmsteen acid trip.” Use it over an Eb or Eb7 chord, or just go crazy and shoehorn it in wherever and whenever you feel like playing something “outside.”



When acquainting yourself with all of these mutant pentatonic scales, try to stick with the five-note framework created by the new scale, even if it sounds a little “out.” Land on a note or phrase that is undeniably “inside” to follow up and create a feeling of resolution, and that lick will be instantly and memorably cool, if you play it with enough conviction! The concept here is to come up with fresh new licks that are based for the most part on comfortable and familiar pentatonic patterns that you already have a grasp on, with shifts to one or two altered notes and fingerings. For something frighteningly fascinating and useful, try integrating these transformed scale shapes and tonal feels with the patterns found in the badass Guitar World lessons by Glenn Proudfoot.



The journey into tampering with the DNA of the pentatonic scale has just begun, though. To inspire the mad scientist in you to come up with your own ideas for crafting your own five-note scales and show you some other things to do to manipulate their mutation, FIGURES 7a and 8a chop up the intervallic “comfort” of the original D minor pentatonic scale’s structure by substituting the b2, or b9, for the b3, providing a wider leap between scale tones and creating a completely unique and enigmatic mood. 


FIGURES 7b and 8b present the scale using the same left-hand shape shifting over octaves with the different connecting scale tones (the b7 and b6, respectively) creating entirely new feels. You can hear lots of this type of exotic, twisted soloing on the brilliant early recordings released by Marty Friedman and Jason Becker in the Eighties.



Experiment with your own variations on these patterns, and try transposing them to different keys, tonal centers and areas of the fretboard. This lesson only scratches the surface of the possibilities you’ll find lurking in all of the small moves you can make to come up with your own pentatonic scale mutations. Happy shredding!

Three Scary, Rut-Busting Licks Inspired by George Lynch

October 31, 2024
Since the early Eighties, soulful shred sensei Lynch—"Mr. Scary"—has challenged the boundaries of his abilities, constantly evolved with the times and kept his playing fresh. While Lynch’s adventurous style is difficult to emulate, bust out of a rut and get some harmonically fresh and physically engaging “Scary”-ness in your playing with these “Mr. Scary”-inspired licks. SCARY LICK 1 is an E diminished 7 (E, G, Bb, Db) symmetrical string skipping tap pattern on the G and high E strings. The diminished7 arpeggio pattern (R, b3, b5, bb7) can be visualized on the guitar as notes occurring every three frets from the root on the same string (For example, an open E string root would use the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 12th, 15th, 18th and 21st frets in a repeating single string E dim7 arpeggio). Since G is a note in E dim7, and G and E are both open strings, symmetrical fretting works across both strings and all the way up the fretboard. The pattern in the lick on both the E and G strings is frets 9, 12, 15, 18, 21 (on the high E). Tap the 18th fret with your pick hand middle finger and fret the 9th-12th-15th stretch with index-middle-pinky, respectively (the 21st fret is slid into with a slide of the tapping finger with the note still ringing after the initial tap at the 18th). SCARY LICK 1A is the lick in 4/4 time with an “accelerator” shift to sextuplets from sixteenths (6s from 4s) on beat 3. SCARY LICK 1B is the pattern looped evenly in ¾ time (also try looping it indefinitely over 4/4 time for a trippy off-center effect). Check out how this lick grabs your attention yet blends seamlessly in an E Dorian/blues context (as it has the E and G from Em, the Db/C# from E Dorian, and the Bb from E blues). 

Five Ways to Put the Pedal to the Neo-Classical Metal

October 31, 2024
These days, “Neo-classical” gets a bad rap from many players, but in its prime, the neo-classical movement inspired an era of innovation and accelerated evolution in the world of guitar.  Spearheaded by Yngwie Malmsteen and Randy Rhoads, inspired by Uli Jon Roth and Ritchie Blackmore (and Bach, Mozart, Paganini, etc.) and taken to its heights by Jason Becker, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and the other early Shrapnel Records artists, the neo-classical period in modern rock guitar was a time of previously unimaginable technical progress and harmonic inventiveness. Why? Because it was fun to play and sounded cool! One of the coolest components of the neo-classical sound, which will work in all musical styles, is the use of pedal points (AKA pedal tones: repeating, static notes. Think the first half of the “Crazy Train” riff or the Halloween theme). And since no discussion of neo-classical musical theory would be complete without some Italian terminology, the following examples in E harmonic minor (E, F#, G, A, B, C, D#) use pedal points in ostinato-type phrasing, with a repeating musical pattern. Getting fluent with this type of phrasing can add a thematic element to your playing and help you create attention-grabbing passages that will bring your improvisations to new musical heights. EXAMPLE 1 uses the E note at the 12th fret on the high E string as its pedal tone, and the ostinato is the “12-11-12." The first note of each 16th note group changes with every beat. Use your index finger for all of the changing notes except use your middle finger for the A (10th fret) on the B string.

Seven Ways to Nail Down Slash's Greasy, Slithery Style

October 31, 2024
His playing is like a drink, a drink known as the New Jersey Turnpike, a drink that can be made only at the end of the night—from the spillover from the bartender’s bar mat and the squeezings of a bar rag. Slash is like a sponge that has soaked up the most intoxicating ingredients of the best music since the dawn of electric-guitar-based rock and roll, and wrung out a grimy, adventurous and uniquely tasty concoction that never ceases to inspire. He is the reason I play guitar, my musical messiah. As Axl Rose said in 1988 during Guns N’ Roses’ timeless performance captured on Live at the Ritz, “In a world he that he did not create, but he will go though as if it was his own making: half man, half beast … I’m not sure what it is, but whatever it is, it’s weird and it’s pissed off and it calls itself Slash.” Slash is a guitar player’s guitar player, drawing deeply and effortlessly sharing secrets learned from greats such as Jeff Beck, Joe Perry, Brad Whitford, Billy Gibbons, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Ron Wood, Michael Schenker, George Lynch, Edward Van Halen, Dave Mustaine, James Hetfield and countless others. While many of Slash’s signature licks and moves are hard to pin down, one thing that can be easily integrated into any guitarist’s vocabulary is his use of slurs. Slash’s playing is obviously built around his uncanny knack for melody, yet that melodicism is seasoned with a greasy, gritty quality that exudes his individuality and makes his melodies all the more memorable (see "Estranged"). On a purely mechanical level, the means for Slash’s achieving the fluidity to allow his individuality and style to shine through come from his use of slurs in his phrasing: hammer-ons, pull-offs and slides.  As another benefit of these techniques, Slash is able to assert his personality by using these slurs to bend the beat to his will, “bobbing and weaving” as he feels. EXAMPLE 1 is a Slash-inspired lick based around the 5th position Am pentatonic scale, with the addition of the 2nd/9th from the Am scale (the seventh fret of the high E string). Notice the rhythmic change in feel from triplets to quintuplets in the first bar and the various rhythmic feels in the second bar (“gallop," “reverse gallop," triplet and quintuplet). A deeper look inside the lick will show Slash’s use of typical blues/rock licks such as those found in beats 1 and 2 of the second bar, which become more effective when surrounded by semi-diatonic slurs. Fingered as Slash would, note also the return to the middle-finger note on the high E (seventh fret) after the ring-finger note on the B (eighth fret) throughout the line.

Journey to the Core of Zakk Wylde’s Pentatonic Shred

October 31, 2024
With the release of Ozzy Osbourne’s No Rest for the Wicked in 1988, a sound was unleashed on the world that changed the lexicon of rock guitar and redefined the meaning of “Guitar God." Plucked from anonymity in Jackson, New Jersey, at age 20, Zakk Wylde (formerly Jeff Wielandt) forged a new path of style, personality and tone that continues to grow and evolve to this day. Zakk Wylde is an amalgam of his influences, performed with his own personal "Jersey fury." Zakk was (and is) a bull in a china shop with a guitar in its hands, with an appetite to devour and regurgitate licks and tricks learned from masters such as Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Eddie Van Halen, Al Di Meola, Jimi Hendrix and (especially) John Sykes and Frank Marino. Add to that a massive, unique tone achieved with a minimal amount of carefully selected, effective tools and it’s easy to see how so many guitarists respect and admire him, and how no generation of guitarists that has followed him has not been influenced and inspired in one way or another by his contributions to the vocabulary of modern guitar (the prevalence of heavily vibrato'ed pinch harmonics on the low strings, for example—usually the third, fifth or sixth fret of the lowest string—is almost a cliché in today’s modern metal, but you didn't hear them a lot before the song “Crazy Babies” was released). Other than tone, huge riffs and sheer style, Zakk’s major contribution to the guitar world was his use of pentatonic scales in previously unheard of ways. When Zakk first came on to the scene in the late Eighties, three-note-per-string scales and sweep picking were the norm, and only (then) underground players like Eric Johnson were using creative manipulation of pentatonic scales to define their individual niche. Zakk had his own take on the pentatonic scale that helped him forge his own style that has continued to develop over his long career, yet at the core of that style/take on performing that scale, there are a few simple patterns that define the fundamentals on upon which the whole of the “Zakk style” is built. Boiled down to its most basic form, the Zakk Wylde-style of executing fast pentatonic licks can be found in EXAMPLE 1A, 1B and 1C .  Using an A minor pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E, G), EXAMPLE 1A is the simplest dilution of Zakk’s trademark licks, simply running a two-notes-on-two-strings pattern fretted with the ring and index fingers. Be careful not to barre the 17th fret to cover both strings. Instead, “walk” the index finger from string to string when necessary. The lick will be much cleaner and more articulate for it, and with sufficiently aggressive pick attack (You can really dig in since it’s always a downstroke when you switch strings), you’ll be ready to channel the Wylde in you in no time! EXAMPLE 1B manipulates the pattern to work as sextuplets (six per beat. Say: “O-zzY-O-zzY-Os-Bourne”), and example 1C changes it slightly more into a syncopated pattern.

Symmetrical phrasing tips that will help you shred across the entire fretboard

October 31, 2024
Get your fingers up to speed with licks in the style of Van Halen, George Lynch, Dimebag and more

The Ins and Outs of Supersonic Alternate Picking

October 31, 2024
New students are always coming to me asking, “How do I improve my sloppy, inaccurate, clumsy and slow picking technique?” More often than not, the first thing I notice about their playing is that they employ an unpolished technique that lacks the discipline of a steady, consistent and controlled use of strict alternate picking. What I find with these students, especially those who were previously self-taught, is that their technique is a haphazard (yet sometimes logical) combination of alternate, economy and awkward sweep picking. While being skilled at economy picking and sweep picking is essential in every guitarist’s bag of tricks, I find that these students are not performing these techniques deliberately, but instead as an accidental consequence of dealing with the tricky nature of crossing from string to string when dealing with 1-per or 3-note-per-string style phrasing patterns. The “tricky” bit that seems to trip these students up comes when specific mechanical movements come into play, specifically those found when crossing from a lower-pitched string with a downstroke to a higher-pitched string with an upstroke (“outside” picking), and when crossing from a higher-pitched string with a downstroke to a lower-pitched string with an upstroke (“inside” picking). The following examples are exercises and licks I have found will clean up any guitarist’s picking technique and give them the control and accuracy to greatly improve their ability to achieve the speed and fluidity they desire. Though there are exceptions to this rule, for the sake of these exercises, make sure the alternating pick strokes are accomplished with firm, yet relaxed grip of the pick and a rotation of the pick hand wrist similar to that of turning a key in a door.  EXAMPLE 1A shows “outside” picking at its most basic. After picking down on the B string, you’ll swing back around, to the outside of the high E string, and strike the string with an upstroke, swinging back around the outside of the B string and striking it with a downstroke, etc. EXAMPLE1B is the opposite, “inside” picking, going down on the high E and coming back up inside the E and B with an upstroke on the B.

Rip Up the Fretboard with Three-Note-Per-String Pentatonics

October 31, 2024
As guitar players' tastes and abilities evolve, and they begin to gravitate toward an appreciation for, and desire to learn, more technically demanding music, the pentatonic scale often gets a bad rap. It's often considered cliché and not as impressive as three-note-per string (3NPS) diatonic scales.  But if you love loud, distorted guitar, somewhere early on in your development as a player you were turned on to the minor pentatonic “box” shape, such as the Am pentatonic in EXAMPLE 1A, and its adjacent shape, the C major (A minor’s relative major) “box” in EXAMPLE 1B . Mindful of the redundant notes shared between the shapes, EXAMPLE1C combines the two boxes into one 3NPS scale. Unfortunately, while this 3NPS fingering immediately opens up a myriad of technical possibilities for re-harmonizing any already perfected diatonic run, there can sometimes be a problem with repeated “double” notes as you cross from string to string.

Paul Gilbert-Style, Sequenced String-Skipping Arpeggios

October 31, 2024
One of the especially cool things about a guitar is the fact that there are almost always at least a few ways to play the same notes. This fact allows (and forces) us guitarists to explore the different possibilities available through experimentation with alternate fingerings, picking strategies and phrasing. Often, while there are many ways to play the exact same notes, there is usually a “magic” fingering and picking pattern that allows for the easiest and most effective execution of the phrase. As an advocate of this “following the path of least resistance”-type of efficiency, guitar guru Paul Gilbert has come up with a great deal of influential ideas, but one of his most useful and technically streamlined is that of string skipping arpeggios. With this technique, instead of playing the common “finger-rolled barre” or similarly inefficient sweep picked arpeggio shape depicted in EXAMPLE1a , you would move the B string note to its equivalent on the G string and switch to alternate picking instead of sweep picking ( EXAMPLES1b and 1c ).  EXAMPLES2a-c and 3a-c show the major and minor flat 5 shapes, respectively.

Guitar Strength: A Guide to Shape-Shifting, Part 2

October 31, 2024
In the last installment of Guitar Strength, I showed you how to take a simple two-string fretboard shape and move it across three octaves in order to create long, fluid lines that traverse a wide range. This time around, I’ll demonstrate how to take the technique to the next level by combining “neighboring” shapes.  Example 1 , based in A Harmonic Minor (A,B,C,D,E,F,G#), takes two consecutive six-note scale shapes and repeats them over three octaves. After ascending through three octaves with the first two shapes, the lick continues into a third shape, which creates a new set of shapes (the third and the second) for the descent through the pattern. Note how adding the second shape helps smooth the intervallic transition from octave to octave and allows for a more fluid physical shift from position to position (since the 2nd shape is always in essentially the same position as the next octave of the first shape going up and the third shape coming down). As a bonus, sequencing the scale in this fashion has a very “wave-like” melodic flow relative to the beat and is also kick-ass practice for mastering the transitions between “inside” and “outside” picking (More on that here).

Guitar Strength: A Guide to Shape-Shifting, Part 2

October 31, 2024
In the last installment of Guitar Strength, I showed you how to take a simple two-string fretboard shape and move it across three octaves in order to create long, fluid lines that traverse a wide range.  This time around, I’ll demonstrate how to take the technique to the next level by combining “neighboring” shapes. Example 1 , based in A Harmonic Minor (A,B,C,D,E,F,G#), takes two consecutive six-note scale shapes and repeats them over three octaves. After ascending through three octaves with the first two shapes, the lick continues into a third shape, which creates a new set of shapes (the third and the second) for the descent through the pattern. Note how adding the second shape helps smooth the intervallic transition from octave to octave and allows for a more fluid physical shift from position to position (since the 2nd shape is always in essentially the same position as the next octave of the first shape going up and the third shape coming down). As a bonus, sequencing the scale in this fashion has a very “wave-like” melodic flow relative to the beat and is also kick-ass practice for mastering the transitions between “inside” and “outside” picking (More on that here).
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