Guitar Chords and Minor Pentatonic Soloing
Pentatonic Soloing Over Guitar Chords.
Soloing over guitar chords can be quite easy when using the minor pentatonic scale. Add spice and power to your guitar solo’s with these simple but highly effective techniques. You’ll be surprised with how much can be done.
Most guitar players start with the minor pentatonic scale when learning to solo. Often times, people don’t learn to use the scale to it’s full potential and this can hold you back.
Here, I’ll show you an easy way to use the pentatonic scale to solo over the three most common guitar chord types: Major, Minor and Dominant 7th Chords.
Major Chords
A Major chord always has a relative minor chord. The easy way to find the ‘relative’ minor of any major chord on a guitar is to take the note three half-steps (3 frets) below the root note of the major chord.
Example: a C major chord – the root note is C. On a guitar, the note 3 frets below a C note is A. Therefore, A minor is the relative minor of C major.
To solo over a C major chord, use the A minor pentatonic scale and you’ll instantly discover that it sounds great!
Example-2: F major chord – three frets below the root of F, you will find D. You’ll use a D minor pentatonic scale over an F major chord.
Example -3: G major chord – three frets below the G root note you’ll find E. You’ll use the E minor pentatonic to solo over a G chord.
Now, you may have noticed that I listed C, F and G major chords there. Coincidentally, They are the 1, 4 and 5 chords of the ‘KEY’ of C Major. This applies to all instruments, not just guitar.
More about this later…
Minor Chords
An easy way to view this… simply use the minor pentatonic scale directly on the minor chord itself. You can do this in any key, over any minor chord.
Example - Use D minor pentatonic for a D minor chord, an E minor pentatonic for an E minor chord, an A minor pentatonic for an A minor Chord.
If you’ll notice I used D, E and A minor chords as the example… These chords are the 2, 3 and 6 chords of the ‘KEY’ of C Major?
More about that later, too…
Dominant 7th Chords
You have a couple of choices here. But basically, you would use the relative minor pentatonic, or the minor pentatonic a tone below the root of the dom7 chord.
Example – over G7, you could use either E minor pent (relative minor), or D min pentatonic.
The reason you could use the D minor pentatonic over a G7 chord is because the Dmi chord and G7 chord often go together in chord progressions. Forcing a Dmi sound over a G7 chord gives a G7sus sound.
KEY Perspective Viewing
All of these examples were based on the KEY of C Major.
An interesting thing is that you can use just the A minor pentatonic alone for ALL the chords in C, or you can also use the D and E minor pentatonics to add some color and more conformity to the chords being used at the time.
Remember, these principles apply to whatever chord you are playing at any time, but can also be applied on a KEY basis,which is a more encompassing picture.
The Key of C Major has these chords:
C, Dm, Em, F, G7, Am, Bmin7b5.
A-minor pentatonic can be used over them all, or just the C and Am chords.
D minor pentatonic can be used over the F and Dm chords.
E minor can be used over the Em and G7 chords.
The (Bmi7b5) is not used quite as aften, but a good choice for that is the Dm pentatonic. Though you can use either of the three pentatonics from the C Major scale – Am, Dm or Em… You’ll ultimately need to decide for yourself which sounds best for the music you’re playing. I suggest using them all. That’s the beauty of music.
Don’t underestimate the power of Pentatonic scales. If you use them as we’ve described in this article you’ll quickly be able to harness the full power from these staunch sounding scales.
I hope this article has helped you to expand your guitar playing.
Would you please leave a quick comment with your thoughts?
Thank You,
Bob
The Guitar Players Rut and How To Get Out
Have you ever felt like you’re in a “rut” with your guitar playing, and can’t seem to get out? This is so very common. In a weird way it’s a good thing because it’s a sign of growth. The key is recognizing it when it’s happening, and then taking action quickly by adding fresh material.
Typically, when a person gets comfortable in a routine, and has a firm understanding of the routine, over the course of time the process becomes a bit boring and predictable.
In the case of a guitarist it represents the musical vocabulary. If you have a narrow musical vocabulary to draw from, your progress will be limited due to the lack of licks and chops.
Lack of inspiration also dulls a guitar player’s full potential, but keep in mind that lack of inspiration is usually the direct result of a narrow musical vocabulary.
The great news is there’s a powerful remedy for this. It brings back inspiration and widens your musical vocabulary. You’re simply going to feed your starving musical mind the food it needs to continue it’s growth and communicate better musically.
Doing this will keep you from ever bottoming out in a rut again.
Solution:
You need to gather up five to ten cool sounding, well constructed guitar licks and learn them. The thing you want to do is remember the techniques being used from each of the licks as you play them over and over. This is the main focus.
Now, as you start to understand and unlock the techniques being used within the licks, you can expand further by changing a couple notes within the techniques being used. Even if you only change two or three notes, you’re going to have a completely different sounding lick, based off of the technique you were using. This is super cool, and I’m sure you’ll also be surprised after trying it.
You’re now able to split many other lick techniques into several other sub-licks, all spawning from the main lick you initially learned. You’ll start developing many new ideas including a vast array of additional licks on demand. It will totally fire up your inspiration, because you’ll have all this new musical phrasing and cool new sound to utilize within your music.
REMEMBER: You need “quality” guitar licks, methods, and techniques to learn from; this assures everything that spawns from it will be just as killer as the quality lick you started with.
Once you begin working with your killer rock guitar licks and techniques, you want to be sure to only work with one lick at a time, and very slowly. You want to sketch each lick into your mind thoroughly and individually to get maximum long term results.
Play each lick no less than 100 times in a row. You’ll be surprised at how little time it actually takes to play the lick 100 times in a row, and the payoff is well worth it. Watch every move your fingers make and try to get as comfortable as possible with the mechanics between the right and left hand. As you continue on, you’ll notice yourself expanding upon the initial guitar lick without even trying. It’s works like magic every time, and gets you out of any rut.
Killer Rock Guitar Licks directly injects “Horsepower” into your guitar playing.
More Soon,
Bob
Please share your comments below…
Guitar Cables and Tone Manipulation (part 2.)
Hello friends, it’s great to hear from many of you who have have similar experiences with guitar cables, and the issues that can be involved with them.
The sooner a guitarist can accept the fact that, guitar cables do indeed influence (good or bad) their guitar tone, the sooner they can conquer this battle. It’s a battle you can quickly win.
Here’s a few more things to consider as we move forward in this discussion… you need to use the exact same equipment when testing (same guitar, same amp, same speakers, same A/C power source) this way you can accurately determine what is happening.
Also keep in mind that what might be great for someone else may not be right for you. That’s why it’s very hard for someone to say “The best guitar cables are XYZ” because it’s very subjective to the individual due to their needs and desired results. With that in mind, allow yourself to re-learn what you may have thought you already knew. It’s ok.
What I’m about to say may blow your mind, but it’s my personal honest opinion and I’m telling you this to break down all barriers in your mind of what could limit your cable testing. I’m sure you all have seen those super cheap cables that come free in the case with a new fender guitar…? We’ll in my opinion, I absolutely love the tone from all of my guitars using those little cheap junkers. Yes, it’s true they are cheap and will not last very long before shorting out but, I think they sound GREAT! My point is, don’t only compare price when choosing what cables you will be testing.
In fact, Stevie Ray Vaughan was said to have explored this route in order to emulate aspects of Jimi Hendrix’s tone. The infamous old gray radio shack cord is a favorite in this realm, as well as the good old faithful vintage spring-loaded coiled cable. There’s no doubt that these cables will tame down the harsh high end.
In the earlier days of the Fender and Marshall Amps, this was probably a good thing, in that those amps were a bit harsh in the high-end range. This allowed the cable to sort of balance out the overall tone of the amp.
Obviously this wasn’t a thought out strategy back then because we didn’t the vast amount of high quality cables to choose from then. But now, we’re able to compare all of these factors with a vast array new high quality cables, and it’s very interesting to say the least.
More things to consider when testing cables…
- The length of cables influence your sound. Typically the longer the cable (20 feet or more) will begin to breakdown, or dull your tone slightly. As mentioned in the comments section earlier (Anders) describes how Jerry Garcia used a buffer to battle this problem and that is definitely a solution when using lots of long cables. You can also try an MXR micro amp to boost the signal as well as… etc.
- Your patch cables play into this scenario too. In fact, just one bad patch cable can degrade the rest of the signal chain throughout your rig.
- Don’t over-solder your ends if you’re building your own cables. Too much solder will also affect your tone in a negative way. Always use just enough solder to make the connection, it’s all you’ll ever need.
- The real expensive guitar cables are not always the best sounding guitar cables. You may notice a crisp high-end with greater fidelity over the whole frequency spectrum, but this may be something that you may interpret as too harsh and cold sounding. I hope this drives home the point to test every cable you possibly can.
- Once you’ve decided on the type of guitar cable you’re going to be using, be sure to re-cable your entire rig from top to bottom. Don’t forget to change a single cable or you can create a problem right there in the signal chain.
Solution: I recommend that you get a bulk roll of your favorite cable, and then get a couple dozen high quality quarter inch male jacks, and custom build each and every cable and patch cable needed for your rig. This will be something that you’ll look back on down the road and say to yourself “I’m glad I took the time to do that”.
Your rig will be super quiet, and very signal driven, and most importantly will make your guitar feel alive and responsive. This is when you’ll always be reminded of just how important guitar cables are to achieve great guitar tone.
This is how all the touring pros do it.
I hope this has given you at least one ah-ha moment, and opened a door for new possibilities within your sound.
Please share your comments with everyone… I’m looking forward to hearing from you.
More soon,
Bob
Guitar Cables and Tone Manipulation (part 1.)
When it comes to creating the ultimate guitar tone, there are many factors that account for this carefully calculated recipe of tone. Yet, who’s to say what the best guitar sound is? This is completely subjective to the person being asked. However, there are common key elements that are present in most every great guitar tone, and a full spectrum of frequencies are indeed one of those key elements.
Today, we’re going to look at guitar cables and examine what this simple little lifeline is (or isn’t) doing for our core guitar tone…
(Core Guitar Tone or CGT, is your guitar plugged directly into the front of the amp with absolutely nothing else in the signal chain anywhere.)
The first thing we must accept is that a guitar cable does indeed affect the signal and the tone of your sound. One simple single guitar cable can be responsible for good or bad quality immediately. This is exactly why I recommend that you spend some time working with different guitar cables to pin point the one you like best. You’ll only have to do this once, because after the initial time spent to narrow down your choices and finally pick, you’ll want to use that type of cable throughout your entire signal chain to maintain consistency.
So, talking from experience and knowing what helped me to quickly overcome this process of cable comparisons and eliminations, I simply spent a couple days rounding up and locating as many different types of cables as I possibly could. This includes cheap ones and expensive ones and everything in between. I was able to borrow tons of different brands of cables from a local music store I worked at. I also rounded up all the cables I personally owned and ones that my friends personally owned.
This may sound like a crazy thing to do, but it was one of the best things i ever did to educate myself on cables regarding signal loss and tone robbery. I would never have thought to even do something like this if it weren’t for months and months of wondering why my guitar sound would change now and then, when I wasn’t changing any components in the rig. I would notice gain loss, or presence loss and the worst of all saggy bass instead of tight focused bass.
One day, i was swapping out a simple patch cord and noticed a difference immediately in my entire guitar sound. It then dawned on me that the patch cord was affecting my overall guitar tone. That’s when I started experimenting with my cords and realized the huge amount of influence my cables had on my core guitar tone. Keep in mind, i was using all kinds of mixed matched cables at the time. This didn’t help the scenario any.
This is why I spent the time going through tons of different cables to discover what worked best for me. As i mentioned, you’ll only have to do this once if you spend the time gathering as many cables as possible, then do it all in one day.
I advise you to record your audio auditions of each cable and document the brand so when you can play them back, you be able to further analyze each cable. But… odds are you’ll know when your playing through the cable right then and there if it sounds right, and feels right. Yes, you’ll feel it in the guitar as well.
You’ll notice differences in things like
- Frequency drops or frequency harshness
- Loss of gain or enhanced gain
- Loss of clarity or enhanced clarity
- Saggy low end or tightly focused low end
- Big roundness of frequencies or narrow nasal frequencies
- Massive loss of sustain or increased sustain
- Dull responsiveness from the guitar or making the guitar feel Alive
- No- transparent and cloudy or crystal clear with sheen
All of these things are what you’ll will notice when you’re able to rapidly examine at least 20 different types of cables through the same guitar and amp rig in one simple setting.
More on this subject when we dive into part 2.
Be sure to read part 2. of “Guitar Cables and Tone Manipulation”
Coming Soon…
Please Leave A Comment below and Share Your Thoughts.
More Soon,
Bob
Guitar Multiple Effects Solutions – (Part 2.)
Hey Everybody, In this post I’m going to cover some of the areas of concern that can rob your signal and tone from your live amp sound. Some of these things can make an extreme difference, and it’s worth knowing what the differences are and how you can take control over them in your set-up.
Please comment after you’ve watched the video.
Thank You, Robert
Multiple Guitar Effects without Tap Dancing – (Part 1.)
I get questions similar to this quite often. This is a well known problem with many guitarists today.
I decided to post the issue my client is having, and offer a few solutions to his problem.
Hopefully this will help others as well. I know I’ve personally been down this road many times.
I believe every guitarist gets to a point where this issue really does need to be addressed as a problem, and then quickly handled. It’s part of growth as a musician. You’re musical growth leads to pushing the envelope harder and harder to meet the demands that you are putting out there.
There’s nothing wrong with this at all… And I definitely agree it is frustrating.
Here’s the issue my client is having.
========================
Hey Bob, I’m having problems using my effects loop.
My gear is pretty simple.
1. Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier head 2 channels
2. Digitech gnx4
3. Dunlop Wah Pedal
4. BBE Sonic Maximizer stomp pedal
- To start I disconnected the wah and the sonic pedal.
- I want head distortion and my gnx in the loop.
I plugged my guitar direct to amp in, loop send to gnx guitar in, left out mono to loop return.
On my gnx I turned off all amp modeling for true head tone.
I only want my gnx for effects delay reverb noise gate chorus ect..
I have set a great tone with my head, and added effects like a distortion stomp for a little extra grit, reverb, delay, gate, and chorus.
The problem is when I change channels on my head for clean tone, I have all of this still on and my clean tone is a little distorted because of my effects.
I have a mode on the gnx for stomp box instead of presets but then I have to click my channel change then click my distortion stomp off so I get true clean.
Dude how do I achieve not tap dancing, I’m trying to figure out if there is a 1 button way for distortion and a 1 button way for clean, while using my head tone in combo with my effects.
In the past I’ve always set my distortion and clean through whatever effects processor I had so I could preset everything to 1 click. I have never loved my dirty tone because it was a processed sound, and its just not quality.
I created a great clean tone but again it has nothing to do with my head. Can I achieve this or is it time to go midi and get even more confused?
Also I tried using my sonic max and my wah in the chain and they don’t sound good should I use my wah in my guitar line to head?
Should my sonic max pedal be after my gnx or before it?
Sorry about the confusion
Thanks so much.
===================
As you can see this is a problem, and one I’m sure you’ve either already faced, or might one day.
Here’s a few solutions to this Tap Dancing Fiasco.
SOLUTION:
The very first thing you need to do is set-up a “Dry Patch” on your Digitech. WHY: because you need a patch that will allow your straight un-effected signal in and through the unit. This will allow the full tone of your amp to be retained.
A dry patch is not the same as the modeling amp turned off. You want to create an actual patch, and turn off every effect within that patch. You want zero effects on this dry patch – nothing.
Next, you need to find and set “unity gain” on the dry patch you’ve just created. The best way to do this is to get your amp sounding the way you want (with the effects loop empty). Then, once you get a killer sound out of the amp plug your Digitech into the effects loop with the “dry patch” on, and immediately listen for the differences.
You may notice a volume difference. You’ll want to take notice of all the differences. It could change your tone as well… Just take notice of everything that changes.
Now, unplug the Digitech from the effects loop. Once again listen to the amp on it’s own by allowing yourself a few minutes to play through just the head. Make sure your volume is balanced between the clean and dirty settings on your amp.
Next, set a comfortable stage volume level on the amp and leave it alone. Plug the digitech back into the loop and analyze the differences again.
NOTE: If you immediately need to adjust the volume, do it by lowering the output on the Digitech, not the amp. At this point DO NOT adjust the amp head for volume, use only the output of the Digitech for volume up or down.
Now, adjust the input of the digitech so it’s registering just below the red. No clipping. If anything, adjust it lower to be certain that you are not clipping the signal.
The reason the Output knob of the Digitech becomes your Master Volume is to keep unity signal flowing through the Digitech and the effects loop at all times. This allows the Boogie’s channel switching as well as everything else on the amp to function like it would if nothing were plugged through the loop at all.
I hope this makes sense… If you do this properly you shouldn’t even notice the digitech is in the loop at all when you’re on the dry patch. Now you can use your other programmed effects that you have within the digitech.
When you’re done with an effect, always go back to the dry patch when you leave an effected patch. This way when you go to the clean channel on the boogie it should sound as clean as it would if nothing were plugged in at all.
Each and every patch needs to be set individually, and then the master volume levels overall. You want to match each and every effects patch so that they are all congruent with each other in terms of volume.
Example: Let’s say you had a chorus effect that blended nicely between itself and the dry patch, but you had a flanger patch that was not as loud and didn’t blend well. You would adjust the volume levels inside the flanger patch itself to match the others. The same would apply in the reverse scenario… If you had an effects patch that was too loud, you would adjust the volume levels inside the patch itself to blend with the others.
If you take your time and do this for each and every effect, you should be able to click between all of your effects and hear a great balance of volume between all of patch including the “Dry Patch”. Check your clean channel too. There shouldn’t be any additional tone coloring or distortion from digitech at this point. Your clean channel should be as clean as it would be without the digitech.
This is a solid solution that will work for the gear you’re using.
Another Quick Solution… If your amp has an effects loop bypass on the back… such as a footswitch that controls the effects loop bypass,… you could have a single button pedal controlling two lines feeding into the effects loop bypass and the channel switching inputs together, so when you clicked the button it bypasses the loop and turns on the clean channel all at once. The only problem with this method is that if you ever want effects on your clean channel you’ve bypassed the loop so it’s not possible.
There’s more to this issue that will be discussed in Part 2.
Coming Soon…Part 2.
Please Leave A Comment below and Share Your Thoughts.
More Soon, Bob
Guitar Cabinet Results (4×12) – Joey Stanker
Here’s an email I received from a satisfied client of mine
that recently did a tone make0ver on his 4×12 cabinet.
He was pleasantly surprised with the results and
I wanted to share them with all of you.
=> Please comment If You Liked This Post.
===================================
Hi Bob, I just recently discovered your Marshall 4×12 setup video. Thank you so much.
I not only ADORE the sound I am getting out of the cabs now, I loved doing the work on them.
My 2 cabs were very new and every screw needed tightening, center braces off center, and one actually had less than 18AWG in it.
I never imagined I’d be the one to fix them up but thanks to your inspiration, I did 
Nice silicon caulk beads, re-wired both with 18AWG, resoldered all connections (No more clips). Center brace remounted to front (Removed staples and replaced with 1″ dry wall screws and wood glue to boot.
I also centered the post without drilling a new hole. I set the back plate on askew by 45 degrees, guided the center screw into my pre-tapped centered post hole, tightened with a couple turns, then repositioned the back plate correctly, then tightened the center screw down the rest of the way.
My bottom end is marvelous
All this improvement has inspired some curiosity.
What would a 2×4 for a center brace do for my sound?
What kind of sound change would replacing the 4 GT12-75s with V30s?
Thanks again Bob, you’re a Peach!
Joey
Seattle
=======================================================
Thanks Joey for the feedback!
I wanted to answer your questions.
Question: All this improvement has inspired some curiosity.
What would a 2×4 for a center brace do for my sound?
Answer: We’ll that’s actually a good question and I’m glad you asked.
The more mass you have in between the front baffle and the back panel will
definitely change the focus of the sound. It should actually be a bit more aggressive
and tighter. You’ll notice a difference in the response, and sound pressure level.
IMPORTANT: if you do this is critical that you make sure the length is the same as the
original post. It needs to be slightly longer to create the force against the back panel.
I hope this helps.
Question: What kind of sound change would replacing the 4 GT12-75s with V30s?
Answer: Another really good question. The GT 12-75′s are actually good all around
speakers for a balanced low end and a balanced top end, however if you like a really
focused mid-range sound with a punchy tight low end, the Vintage 30′s are the way to go.
I’ve used both for years and can say that the GT 12-75′s tend to get a bit saggy on the bottom
and lose the character at high volumes. The Vintage 30′s really project accurately at high
volume levels. The vintage 30-H is recommended, Or the Van Halen Vintage celestions.
Please leave your comments or questions below.
Rockin Your Guitar Success!
Robert Lee Molton
Killer Guitar Tone In 7 Days – Guaranteed!
How To Get Killer Guitar Tone
In 7 Days Or Less Guaranteed!
Happy New Year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
I just wanted to take a minute and say Thank You,
for all your support this year, and to let you know I
truly appreciate you being a loyal subscriber.
I plan to share many great things with you this New Year!
Let this be the year that inspiration takes hold
and opens the flood gates to great success.
I wish you and your family all the very best in 2010!
Here’s to a prosperous New Year for all of us…
Rockin Your 2010 Success!
Robert Lee Molton
NAMM 2009 Steve Vai & Robert Lee Molton
Namm 2009 California
Carinal Lirola is the UK artist I’ve been working with as of recent months. She is signed to Steve Vai’s label. At Namm Steve and I met and shot this photo. Steve has been a big support system for Carina’s album. Big things are expected from this album’s release in Spring of 2009. Keep your eye on Top Fuel Guitar for the latest…
steve-vai-bob-molton
