Learning how to interchange between Maj and Minor pent/blues


To be a real blues player, IMO you must be able to swap between Maj and Min pent or blues without thinking. Look at Rory Gallaghar, SRV, Clapton(perfect example is Hideaway). They all do it all the time.

Ive been practicing this for some time now. I started based on shapes and hope to move out of the shapes in hope that this makes my playing more fluid.

Eg. I take A Pentatonic Major shape 1 and draw it out.
I take A Pentatonic Minor shape 1 and draw it out.
I then draw both shapes out in the one diagram, noticing where they overlap.
I then take this combined maj/min shape and jam over a backing track.

Ive done this for all 5 shapes. The problem is Ive been doing this for a month now and not seeing any real progress. My playing sounds clunky, unfocused and hap hazard.

Do you guys have any other techniques for learning how to mix Maj and minor pent/blues in lead playing?

Well man,to be perfectly honest with you,you're gonna have to do it for a lot longer than a month...simple as that.
I've played guitar for over 40 years,the last 15-20 have been devoted to blues,thousands of hours of playing notes,not worrying about scales so much but what sounds good and this...creating tension and resolving it in solos,and then chasing tone with both different guitars and amps.
*I'm beginning to see some results.*
Keep after it,but give it lots of time,and blood sweat and tears....oh yeah,it helps to really get down and out and actually experience the "blues"...life will provide that.
That's probably not anything like you were wanting to hear,but my 2 cents.

I completely agree with creating tension and then releasing it. A good song to listen to and a perfect example of this is Jimi Hendrix's Red House. Classic classic blues guitar. Good luck and keep practicing.

I think your idea of drawing out the scales is a very good one. That is the plan of attack I used a few months ago when I really started focusing on my soloing and blues playing. I got a standard picture that showed all the notes of the fretboard and outlined each scale major and minor A-G. It has really really helped me!

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Blues with a feeling.

GUILD GUITARS: MADE TO BE PLAYED!

Yeah, I would agree with the previous posts that it takes a while to sink in. It seems to me that you are taking too much material at once.

While it is good to have it all organized and mapped out, it can get overwhelming.
One thing I learned is to start with the smaller chunks such as:
(you probably know a lot of this stuff below, but I just have it there for reference and hopefully any bit of information can help)

1. Learn Maj pentatonic intervals.

2. Pick one tonic (root) note of your choice and run it all over the fretboard and try to sing out the notes in the range that fits you vocally.

3. Once you discover how the scale sounds and get bored of ascending and descending sound of plain scale, try to record yourself with some Major chord progression (pick an easy key E, A, G, D) try 12 bar or straight 16 or whatever.
(download jam track as an alternative if you can't record)

4. Play the scale (solo) over the recorded progression but watch out entry and exit notes focus on root and fifth.

5. Once you get bored with this, repeat the same but experiment with other notes (watch out for third-this bugger escapes me often and sounds like mess). Now this is where theory thread might help to chose which note to play over which chord.

6. Introduce other notes (blues scale, mixolidyan mode). Run that up and down the fretboard.

7. Change root as you change chords.

8. Learn min pentatonic intervals and repeat the steps and add Dorian mode instead.

9. Once you are comfortable mix em' all

This is not something you can learn in a month or two unless you got someone showing you the right notes, licks... best advice is to listen to some of these Blues greats and you'll pick up what notes go where. It's all about timing IMO. I'd start with Albert Collins, BB, Otis Rush, you'll hear a mixture of both and will know what works well and where in the 12 bars.

After listening and playing along with these Blues greats for many hours everyday I have no problem mixing it up, it should come natural to you... many times it depends on who else I'm playing with, what bass line, what the keyboard is doing, etc... Blues is all about feel, nothing science about it I've heard great players sound like crap cause they were trying too hard to mix scales and there was no story for me to follow, I get bored easily. Listen to the into on How Blue Can You Get by BB from Live in Cook Country Jail, that's one heck of a story he's telling there! Timing, dynamics, and great tone, what more can you ask for

Found it on youtube.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l45f28PzfCI

You're getting some great advice here. One more thing, learn to play in phrases. Blues solos resemble speech and written passages. Think of them as a sentence with commas, periods and exclamation marks. Speak in small chunks and save the larger phrases for the solo's exit

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Tim

Blues historically was/is predominantly based on feeling and not burying one's self in theory where all playing has to be legitimized and justified through same. As is/was tradition, simply learn the most popular open voice and barre chord patterns, extract your notes and patterns directly from them and either 'borrow', expand on or outright make up phrases which sound good to and work for you. Don't get all hung up on what is or isn't 'grammatically' correct or surely, you'll sound like it.

I've been a Blues player for over 40 years now. I can always tell who 'studied' Blues and who 'feels' the Blues as 99% of the time the former sounds like (s)he learned it out of a method book. Meaning, there is no heart, no soul and surely, no originality; just someone mechanically reciting preordained scales and cliched phrases. And let's face it, no one will ever create a their signature vibrato this way!

Sometimes, the theory book needs to be closed and ignored in order for one to truly be inspired. YMMV.

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You dig?

thanks folks. Yea, im very very familiar with minor pent/blues and pretty familiar with major blues. its putting them together thats the trouble.

Im going to slow down a bit and try to break it down as suggested.

Thanks folks.

All good advice. I might add, listen to the Blues Masters. They hold the keys to the Kingdom. Listen and then listen again.......... Mike

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

good post. good advice. gives me something to ponder. my lead playing needs alot of help. thanx.

Once you are comfortable with pentatonic maj and min try using the Dorian mode (it contains a b 3rd and a b 7th and behaves like a minor scale) or the Mixolydian mode (contains only the b 7th which works perfectly with all the dominant 7th chords used in blues). I'm sure you can find many patterns on line. These two modal scales will add a different flavour to your soloing.

Have fun.

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Tim

+1

Listen carefully to a few solo's by the blues masters, there is actually a tiny pause between when you think the phrase or lick begins and when it's actually played by the soloist. It's playing a bit behind the beat.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Don't only listen to guitar blues players,if you really want to absorb some phrasing of a different color,listen to some horn players like Miles Davis and Coltrane,it's improv jazz and out there at times but it's their voice,and really,you don't want to sound like other guitar players,you have to find your own voice.
The most basic part of blues is the imitation of the human voice.
In other words,in phrasing.....if you can't hum it or sing it....forget it.

Amen!!! Muddy Waters, B.B KIng, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Albert King, Robert Johnson and others are great blues men that have no clue on scales and reading music. They have no clue on what they are playing, but what they have is the feeling, the mojo for the blues. Its all trail and error and playing by ear, pain and feeling. No music lesson can teach that IMHO. After all, Blues and Rock and Roll are the products of breaking the rules.

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