- This topic has 12 replies, 7 voices, and was last updated 3 years, 10 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
-
There is a BG jam not far from my house every month. Ive played with them before with mixed results. Im really not a BG guy, but these guys jam every month and also have a couple BBQ house jams a month. I dont have currently anyone to jam with I want to learn more about soloing on these BG changes
In the Gravel Yard , I played a good lead break, using minor pentatonic, I didnt know enough major pentatonic to do anything with. It worked., Someone told me it was because it had more of a blues feel .
But then on some other more Bluegrassy major ones my lead breaks stank. Pent minor didnt work. I know I can move 3 frets down and play the minor . So Ive been working on that.What scale the maj pentatonic or mixolydian should I be trying to get in my mind. Ive learned the Major Pent scales, but dont have licks like I do in Minor pent. But Ive been playing with jam tracks in major , any advice ? Id really like to get into this loop, but not content to just play rhythm , which some guys do . Im not lazy and enjoy playing around / practicing , just looking for some direction thanks
-
-
Steve,
Work out or borrow some licks from the C, G A and E chord shapes and then try to find some variations of them. You can find lots of licks in various AM lessons. If you can find the 4th interval in those chord shapes, you get an Allman Bros sound. I made a video for Craig S about Hendrix embellishments around major chords and, accidentally, ended up getting 18,000+ views. I think you might find it helpful. Let me know if it’s of use.
John-
Nice overview John. No wonder it’s got so any views.
I fully support the idea of working off chord shapes, particularly for bluegrass (and country in general).
In the same vein as your video, I’d like to suggest three ways you can tweak licks to get more mileage out of them.The first technique is to use repetition. Instead of playing the base lick, you repeat parts of it.
The second technique is to use octave displacement: you take parts of the original lick but play it an octave higher or lower.
The third way is to change the articulation: use hammers instead of slides (or the opposite), use bends, etc.In attachment you’ll find an example of these three approaches applied to a base lick you can use over an E shape chord (the example is in G, but you can of course transpose that to whatever key you want).
Best regards,
JM -
-
-
Hi Steve,
I would recommend two things. First, on the vocal tunes, by far and away the best thing you can do is figure out how to play the melody of the song on your guitar. Believe me, if you can do that, and do it with good timing and tone, you will be more than welcome to take a break in any bluegrass jam. The melodies of these songs often have long pauses. A fiddle player or mandolin player can fill these pauses with long sustained notes. On guitar, when playing a basic solo, you often fill in these spots with light strumming on the current chord. So start with the melody, fill in with strums and when that is sounding good and up to tempo, you can add in some pentatonic licks.
Second thing I would recommend – and maybe you are doing this already – is to start learning a handful of the most popular fiddle tunes. Salt Creek, Whiskey Before Breakfast, Blackberry Blossom etc. Fiddle tunes are the ultimate chops builder for flatpicked guitar and they are super fun to play.
Finally, you could do a lot worse than to grab this book and work through some of the material in it. Jack Tuttle is a legendary Bay Area bluegrass instructor (and the father of bluegrass guitar phenom Molly Tuttle). All his books are great.
And to answer your original question, I think you’ll get more mileage from working on major pentatonic than minor in a bluegrass context, but as usual it’s really some of both.
Hope that helps!
Richard
-
-
thanks guys , Ibe been working on the pentatonic major I learned from Brian, and the box Ive always played ,the minor pent , three frets down, I love that box and its extension , you can play Priest or 12 bar shuffle leads , and I never know all these years ,that I could just move it 3 frets down until I watched one of Brians vids. Only prob is G which half the BG songs where Ill be playing are in , I could move up to 12 , but I think it would be out of context. And maybe even look to showey.
I will take yalls advice and thank you!
and yes YT has some decent backing tracks, not much BG ones though
-
-
Steve, like Richard is saying, G major pentatonic in the open position is just the same as E minor pentatonic. On top of that you’re moving into box 2 from the open position and you already know licks that move between box 1 and box 2. Even nicer, the E minor pentatonic blue note is the minor 3rd in G major pentatonic, which gives a bluesy sound to your G major licks when sliding or hammering from the minor 3rd to the major 3rd of the major pentatonic. Now if you can mix the major and minor pentatonic from the home base position at the 3rd fret you’ve got most of the myxolydian covered. That’s probably all you need to get by at the jam.
John
-
-
-
-
I just couldn’t resist and picked up my old Flatt & Scruggs vinyl…!
I don’t play bluegrass very often but basics are not that complicated so I’ve written out two breaks for you in the key of G for the song “Mama don’t ‘llow”… That song must be the bluegrass jams equivalent of “Autumn Leaves” for jazz sessions…
Anyway, it’s fairly typical bluegrass and it should get you started playing in G.
Have fun!
-
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.
