This is exactly my approach to scales. Rather than learn them as separate scales, I just see the pentatonic and add 'outside' notes for mood. b6 and 9 for sadness, b5 in passing for bluesiness, LAND on b5 for evil. b2 for MORE evil, #7 for drama....but its always pentatonic + other notes. Works for me.
@@videomakville That can work. Just add a note here and subtract another there from the penatonic, and you arrive at your modes. Probably not a very 'classical' way of approaching it, but I don't care!
one thing i like about this chanel, is the fact that you invite some other musicians to teach and share their perspective of what to do, how to do it and so... i like the fact that you dont pretend to teach all those concepts wich is something very humble. we musicians learn from each other all time. thats the point
As someone learning to play without a teacher, this video has been a HUGE help. The pentatonic is a great first scale to learn but it gets boring pretty quickly. This is the perfect method for taking incremental steps into other scales. MORE VIDEOS WITH ROTEM PLEASE
this has literally blown my mind. As a intermediate player i feel really lost sometimes on what to learn and what to do when it comes to theory and practice and i felt my approach to the pentatonic scale became stale and as soon as i just saw what you was doing it clicked immediately. You are hands down the best teacher on TH-cam and you deserve all the good things in life that come your way!
For me i think its just being open to learn other styles and emulate other guitarist wich you are not used to. Are you used to emulate: john mayer, hendrix, SRV, john fruscisnte etc.. For me it was like that. Im a blues-y john mayer fan and play a lot of this blues stuff, but i recently discovered gipsy jazz and that is interesting to me and by playing that it has made me better as a guitarist. Ive never really learned theory untill last 8 years through youtube and things are coming well together now. Been playing for 15 years now.. still a lot to learn and improve on. Agreed on this being a great teacher 😁
You can use simply the pent scale and add whatver you want to give a moody colour. You only have to take care of the 2nd guitarist or keyborder not to hold on or end on sharp neighbours like b7 and #7 over long time. As short notes this dissonant interval can be a spicy add on to your song! Kind regards, Henry
This is why using your ears is so important. Almost everything can sound good. And if it doesn't you're usually a half step bend away from something that sounds good.
2 of the most soulfull guitar „teachers“ in one video. Pure liquid gold! Its not only teaching. You both do have an unmatched vibe to me. Inspirational- wonderfull - calm- thanks for making this world a little better
I got so much out of this, following along in my modest way with my guitar, I was sure it was an hour long. Extremely useful, empowering, entertaining, fulfilling for an older person circling back to my childhood love for guitar. Very very musical. Much appreciated.
I have always been adamant that I am a rhythm player with just some basic pentatonic skills with some flavoring learned in some popular blues based hooks in popular music. But THIS approach has motivated me to break out of that box and start exploring. A HUGE deal for an old fart like me to keep pushing my edges. Thanks for the awesome video!!
Keep playing those “extra” notes if they sound good to you. There is theory behind them but “you” know when it sounds right. This was a great video to demonstrate this.
@@killabees1 that’s me too but now that I’m learning more theory it has definitely helped me understand why it works and sounds good. It’s definitely helped me understand modes. Until now they were always a mystery.
Pentatonic scale is the only thing we need. Its so awesome that 50 years later were still creating new things with that beautiful scale. Thank you for everything paul. You rock.
Seeing how very intricate sounds can be built based off the simple pentatonic scale give me a lot of hope for my future in playing. Just learned the pentatonic over the entire fretboard and excited to expand!
This is exactly how I approach it and teach my students to approach it - start with the pentatonic (easy to learn!) and then add extra notes to it, one by one. No need to learn all new scales. I've had many intermediate students approach me with their #1 goal being to get out of the "pentatonic rut", and I'm always relieved to hear it, because I know how easy that will be to teach. :) Great video, thanks guys!
The fact that you give away lessons like this for free is one of the main reasons I decided to join your Patreon page. This lesson alone opened my mind to so many possibilities.
Special appreciation for been a big fans and thanks for your nice comment on my post and I want you to send me a direct message to my hangouts through my mail or WhatsApp through my mobile number that will be indicated below, also do make sure you add your name to the text so I can know you are the one texting me so I can reply you... Hangouts Email : davidspaul483@gmail.com
This is just such a perfect example of the issues that surround learning guitar! You can literally put any note over any chord and in some way it will work, it sounds ridiculous and it’s taken me 8 years of playing and an entire degree in guitar to actually relax, and properly experiment! I got caught in the ‘you can’t do that, it’ll clash!’ mindset, it’s so freeing once you drop that! Incredible video by two of my favourite guitarists 🙏🏻🙏🏻
As an intermediate player, I've always avoided the Pentatonic scale, not knowing how to make it sound exciting and gone for the Harmonic Minor and more exotic scales instead... until now. I've never been brave enough to improvise solos, prefering to write them instead and sticking to them note for note. But I tried improvising just now using this method and it has blown my mind, I can do it now! Great lesson, a real eye opener. I am so grateful for this. Thank you for bringing this boring scale to life and unlocking my mind, great job! 🙏🙏 🙏
The late, great, Harold Blanchard; composer on CBS Masterworks ( Quincy Jones, Chick Corea, Hubert Laws. Bill Kanengiser) and so many more. He would say to me "there are 12 notes you use them all." I was at conservatory at the time and doing private lessons with him. As a classical student wanting to expand my jazz knowledge it took a while to understand. This is a good example of what I was to understand years later!!
MAN, I`ve been playing guitar for quite some time, but NO ONE nailed it like that until now. Congratulation and most of all: THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Amazing! Respect and greetings from the south of Germany!!!!! Thank you so much for this!!!!
+1 for chromatic scale, and more of this guy too please! Love your chemistry together. Also thank you for teaching me, a guitarist of 15 years, something spicy to add to my improvisational solo jamming! Wish I learned my theory sooner haha.
I admit to never caring for Jazz--but Rotem might have just converted me--at least to his playing. Amazing! Two extraordinary players in one video! Loved this. I'd been adding these notes over the past few weeks and finding different colors, spices, juice to my playing, so this was confirmation--but vastly nicer than anything I came up with. Thanks for the inside view of beauty in sound. You are both a joy to listen to and watch. Stay Well.
@@neonmasterva I've been playing in close proximity to other guitarists for years and have only knocked guitars twice. Once was my fault (no damage done). The other time a guy racked a guitar string end right into the sitka spruce of my custom built guitar. Thanks STEFAN!
I actually have the opposite problem, but this approach is one that should help me. I was self taught 45 years ago and having previously had a basic piano training I started from the context of the full major or minor scales - pentatonic wasn't mentioned in any of the books I read on guitar back then. So my problem is using too many notes rather than too few - and ending up including the whole scale and thus not having any notes left to use sparingly for changing mood or adding tension. (And not leaving any spaces between notes!) Having not played for many years I took it up again last year and decided to do it right this time - oh to have had Paul's teaching available back in the 70s!
Perfect ! You are so humble you're still thinking on how to help who's stuck with same old licks. And you nail it. Always. Thanks. T Maybe this is not musical college studying, but hey, if someone is studying in musical college, he doesn't need youtube vid 😁👍 Thanks. Cheers. Keep it up
This reminds me so much of Ronnie Earl's playing... he uses all this stuff. I've been playing Blues for ever. It is nice to add stuff like this... but in my experience, applying theory knowledge to Blues dilutes it's soul. Yet, as I mention, Ronnie Earl... his playing is so intuitive, spontaneous, soulful. I find that taking Pete Townsend's advice, "pick up the guitar and play." Less thinking, more playing... make it feel good...
I've watched you for a few years and you have some amazing content, but for me this was the most useful lesson you've done. Everything seemed to click in place. Also, at the beginning I thought, 'Paul's really changed his hair.'
Thinking in intervals and using them as a roadmap is the single biggest thing that improved my neck awareness and improvisation.. Yes using the pentatonic shapes as the skeleton and then adding the other notes to flesh out is an extremely powerful way of thinking of the guitar!
Love this video. This is how I think about it as a beginning guitarist only having played for about a year now. So cool to know that’s how the very experienced players think about it too
Thanks for making this video Paul. I'm sure it gets difficult coming up with new ideas considering how much you have already covered in your many video lessons but this one was perfect for me to grab ideas and expand my use of the pentatonic scales. Loved the guest artist and listening the two of you playing together as well.
My main training has been with Indian Classical music, (Sarode) the guitar I've played longer but stopped playing when I began my journey into learning the Sarode. Now I again play lots of guitar, but with lots of Sarode influence. Pentatonics are big in India. There are so many but because they are all taught in the same key, the variety of scales is absolutely enormous. The minor blues scale for instance, can be played as a pentatonic ascending but heptatonic descending. Anyway, it's another view of music.
Good point. There are several variations of the traditional pentatonic scale. All that is required is to play five tones within the octave to be pentatonic.
Victor Wooten's 2-10 lesson is so important here. Groove, feel, technique, space, tone, rhythms, etc. will make every note sound good. It's not the notes.. It's never the notes. You think Jaco and Charlie Parker were thinking about notes? Great playing guys. Love your content, Paul.
Fantastic. Hope to see a band in the works. A bluegrass guy once said simply "seek and ye shall find" In terms of linking notes up and down the board. and "colors" . Brought me back to my smoky bar room days where playing was chill. Please do more with this guy, what fun.
Yeah. Phraseology. Don’t let them 5 notes suck, you could add the other 7 notes and voila you got YOU. Great lesson by the way and some sweet playing. 🎸
@@Benjiroyoface you mean by keeping the pentatonic framework and throwing in these "outside" notes according to the chord being played? I can see how that would be easier than learning chord scales for changes.
Oh man, this video is an entire brilliant course. I have watched it three times and getting something every time. The playing is so soulful as well that I am entranced. Wow, lovely, thank you - it has already changed my playing.
Krieger rocking that 9th so hard, in part because the bass line is also hitting that note every other few beats. This is a wonderful tension melodically.
How the fark does anyone downvote a video like this? This is GOLD! Thanks for the great videos, you are one of the TH-cam heroes Paul, and an inspiration to millions!
Great lesson Paul. Practicing around this can really elevate your pentatonic playing, without thinking much about it. Great for people who are feeling like they're stuck in the pentatonic. Great one!
For new guitarists that learn from scales, I'm shure this is learnful. I've played for 40 years and never practised a scale. Just play by listening and expreimenting .
I have never thought in scale terms, I learnt the old school way of following chord tones - over the years this became my default way of playing; it is only recently since TH-cam guitar players kept referring to the Pentatonic scale that I see this; many paths up the mountain
I have just discovered a guy called Andy Timmons, he seems to be reasonably famous guitarist and exquisite phrasing and so melodic, which is more important to me then technical technique. Listening to this video has really helped me see how he is developing his sound. I have always found the named modes really confusing, they are the same scale started on a different note, since songs don't just run through scales it's difficult to see any relevance of modes. But what is being discussed here is the actual working realities for producing sound, for adding flavour to the otherwise limited series or progression of chords that create what people of earth call.... Music😜
The formal deinfinitions of scales/modes just feel overcomplicated for what it actually is. It is there so we have a robust and universal system to describe them, but when it comes to learning and understanding them - this is definitely the best approach, start with pentatonic and learn how the other notes work with it and what kind of emotion they introduce
The modes each have their own sound (their tonality) -- even though they're the same seven notes. Which is why it's relevant. It's a nice demonstration of the importance of choosing what you do and which notes you emphasize in your melody and harmony to establish that sound you want instead of some other sound. It's not just the raw notes that have a sound; it's what you do with them, even when you're not running up and down a scale. (See those jokes in the video about "are you Middle Eastern?") For guitarists, the "same scale starting on a different note" is a nice economy. You don't need to learn 35 patterns to know all the modes all over the neck. Five will do. (And of course they're all really just one pattern: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1, and pick your own starting point in that cycle and when you want to change strings.)
@@vocalsg13 It's just the interval pattern counting the number of half-steps /semitones to pick out the major scale, e.g. C, +2 half-steps = D, +2 = E, +1 = F, +2 = G, +2 = A, +2 = B, +1 = C again. 2-2-1-2-2-2-1, for short. Or start somewhere else to get a different mode, wrapping around at the end. Minor/Aeolian, say, starts on the sixth: A, +2 = B, +1= C, +2 = D, and so on. 2-1-2-2-1-2-2. But look at that third number in this minor pattern and read from there: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1, the major pattern we started with. It's the same interval pattern for both, same set of notes, different mode depending on where you start, wrapping around every octave. Just different ways of writing the same thing. There are seven modes because there are seven notes in that scale, seven different starting places in the one seven-interval pattern. Other interval patterns would give you yet other scales (the whole-tone scale, for instance, 222222, or harmonic minor, 2122131), each of which would have its own set of modes.
I wish this video existed 10 years ago when I was in high school and couldn't figure out what notes I was allowed to play in blues. Eventually I came to the revelation that this video teaches, but it took me awhile to accept it.
Although a note out of context can sure sound like a #$&* up. 😣 Especially when you do nothing about it, or stop playing out of embarrassment! That’s a noob mistake… I think really good experienced players kind of push through misplayed notes, and you almost don’t notice! They have so many licks and melodic moves immediately at their disposal, they can be all over the map while improvising and still recover in a split second and pull it together…
i tthink its more that if you play a sour note, you have to resolve, when a begginer (or that annying cousing) grabs the guitar and starts playing stuff randomly, they just go on without going back to the key. there is no end. there are some genres of metal that even chromatic solos happen, or even solos where no notes are "in key" but the fact that there is a beggining and the end you feel like you moved through stuff and sat down, not just stood up in your chouch inside a Tornado
If you play a note that sounds bad, quickly slide to an adjacent note and get back on track. If your recovery sounds smooth enough, repeat the exact same sequence of notes, including the sour note to make it sound like you meant to play that. Only experienced musicians will be on to your shenanigans.
Contrary to the comments here, Victor Wooten has a great demonstration where he shows if you play a “wrong” note, simply keep playing it, and it will start to sound right.
I’m a fan of this thinking and have used it for a while, the next step is playing a pentatonic that’s not from the root, for example on the a minor playing e minor pentatonic to add in the 9th or a b minor pentatonic to add the natural 6th or the d minor pentatonic to add the minor 6th. Using pentatonics like this is great fun especially over a one or two chord vamp situation. The way I think of it is of I want it to feel content/known/... then I stick to the root pentatonic, when I want to spice it up I use an other one. Oh a really spicy one is using the c minor pentatonic to add the flat 5 and the flat 9 then off to the c minor pentatonic you add in its natural 6 you can get the root but not behaving like the root
I always did this instinctively, never taught, or thought of it, in a theoretical way. It's lovely to see that I was hitting that so often. great video! Love it! Playing for 45 years BTW. Once you're familiar with the fretboard everything is possible. Practice is..... worth everything. Wish I had the internet growing up. Thanks Paul, you are really doing great work. Geweldig, zal ik maar zeggen! and I've just got to add... you guys are COOL. I really enjoyed this (and no, it's not the prozac, I don't use it 😂😂😂 )
I learnt the power of pentatonic when I started to learn jazz and transcribing Miles Davis trumpet solos into guitar. But the way he phrase it doesnt sounds like typical rock n roll or bluess guitar phrase. Same with jazz guitarist. I realized its not about what scale you play, but what notes you play to lined the CHORD CHANGES. The best way to learn how to use pentatonic scale is learning triads and chord changes.
Man, I used to be locked into playing the pentatonic exactly as written. Of course as the years went on I learned the 3 note per string modes and several other scales used mainly by heavy metal players but through it all I realized I was a pentatonic guy. So I have ended up playing the pentatonic scale with literally nothing off limits. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I will find myself using chromatic runs, and any note that sounds good to me. Yet I always just consider myself a pentatonic scale guy. Because I am really. I don’t know all the theory behind it but I know what sounds good. People will ask me what scales are you using to get those licks or whatever and I’ll say “it’s just the pentatonic “ “with a few extra notes for good measure “🤷🏻♂️. I don’t know what else to tell them? It’s just whatever sounds good, but all based out of the pentatonic. It’s definitely nothing new!
This scale unlocked my full potential and now I'm playing carnegy hall! But for real, I never had a natural access to pentatonics, but man I am sold after this video
thanks very much for this video! I have been stuck playing 7th arpeggios and diatonic scales forever, now I feel like I can open up the chromatic and keep the easy pentatonic backbone too. And this came easy too, guess it was just the right timing for me to grasp this way of conceptualizing things. Never had such a single easy thing help open so many doors for me.
Being from Southern California (my family of transplanted vikings arrived in the late 1800s) and really schooled on the guitar players that were changing our live and studio culture pre-rocknroll, we learned that between Blues and Jazz was Swing. "Jump Swing" was huge on the West Coast and that with "Western Swing" gave us rock n roll... those two are what you hear in AC/DC more than pure blues or the variants of Jazz certainly. That major third being very intentional after a very clear and felt minor third was how most of the hits by Louis Jordan or Big Joe Turner started off. (1 m3-M3 5 6 8!) But I teach my California kid students the pentatonic as re-imagined by two Okies, one who resettled in California, T-Bone Walker and one who went east and invented Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Christian. They both do what's in this video but especially T-Bone. Ne never outlined a diminished chord like Charlie did... he simply found all the out notes a half step away and then brought them in to tune with the pentatonic. But how STYLISHLY and BEAUTIFULLY he did it. He (and to a smaller extent the Tympany 5 guitar player Carl Hogan) brought us Chuck Berry... who also distinctly played minor 3 to major 3. A lot of those notes WENT AWAY... even BB King dropped the Jump Swing notes when the British Invasion turned into British Blues Rock... they abandoned the 6... the m3 got bent but rarely all the way up to M3. 9s were gone. .... so what you guys are doing is bringing us back to the origins of big city blues... Jump, Swing... Western Swing, Rock n Roll T-Bone Blues and Charlie Christian Jazz. And what did T-Bone do with his riffs? He played Pentatonic and added all extensions... one of his main riffs has all 12 notes... and he *altered ... that flat 5 especially... in a way that sounds so familiar to us. Kids freak out when they realize they ALREADY know how to play all the notes of the scale and ALL ALTERATIONS a few months after we learn T-Bone solos. This was a fun video. I will share it.
I love the simplicity of the pentatonic so much that I haven't been bothered to learn anything else! Now and then I hit the wrong note and realise how cool it actually sounded so I keep using it in and around the pentatonic scale. By using my ear this is how I learn to play. I build around the pentatonic.
I have been playing for over 40 years. I started with 'theory' lessons....and then learned MANY scales, and 'modes'....became very concerned about what mode and scale worked with each other....etc.. I then hit a definitive plateau, where there wasn't much creativity left, but only to get 'faster' . Even getting the speed, I felt thinking in specific scales and especially modes actually constricted me. Luckily? I found myself drawn to blues rock... Clapton, Gilmour...etc... and enjoyed a ton of classic rock... (jazz, country, classical...and others too..., but alot of rock ) After taking a hiatus from any serious playing for a few years....after coming back to playing about 10 or so years ago...I really started to focus on acoustic, and the organic sound. I have always taught lessons , on and off... Since my acoustic rebirth, I basically had an epiphany .... NO 'scales'....no 'modes'... Find your key... everything is SHAPES... as for leads, you need 2 shapes ingrained in your head....no modes, no 'scales'... the standard Pentatonic scale SHAPE ...and the MAJOR scale SHAPE ... Find your key (root). Where the pinky of the Pent shape is....thats where the 'root' of the MAJOR shape is, and where that pinky is, is the ROOT of the next Pent shape. know your shapes...I think of the chord changes as my Main 'home' which is the key of the song....and then the guest houses, which are the chord root of the progression.... When you are on a DOWN beat...you should be at a house... when you hit the 'four'....you might want to be at your MAIN house...all that is safe. What you do BETWEEN the down beats is what makes you , and your lead phrasing original is what you do in between the beats. You are allowed to take a walk away from your house at any point, but remember...you must always get back there (resolve) and then your journey was complete. A BAD note is only BAD if it's left out there to rot. ;) Paul... I have watched a ton of your vids....I enjoy your loop stuff alot, as I run a Loop Station group on Facebook..... however, this is your most on point 'lesson' yet. I have been teaching this as my personal 'method' for 3 years :) good on ya. Oh, and don't ask me the name of any chord I might be playing at this point either...between tuning full step down to D standard, and using a capo, and partial capo alot... it's all about roots, drones, triads and di-ads and a few cowboy chord shapes, and barre 1, and 2 positions...lol Dave facebook.com/groups/loopstationartists/
Paul Davids is the Wim Hoff of guitar teachers... Brilliant...😎 Thank you Paul...and Rotem. These two guys are so smoothe, so tasty and so unpredictable that its almost impossible for them to play a bad note or an off colour phrase. EVERYTHING sounds right...👍
This is amazing. It'd be great if we had another video explaining a little bit deeper how and when to use each one of those variations (what type of chords they'd fit, etc)
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Was so fun! thanks for having me brother 🙏
You are awesome 👌
Your playing style is insanely good
Wow
Love from🇫🇷👍🏼🍒
Excellent, come back soon.
the myth. the man. the legend. LOL!
This is exactly my approach to scales. Rather than learn them as separate scales, I just see the pentatonic and add 'outside' notes for mood. b6 and 9 for sadness, b5 in passing for bluesiness, LAND on b5 for evil. b2 for MORE evil, #7 for drama....but its always pentatonic + other notes. Works for me.
I have come to this realization recently. In fact I am trying to stretch it to cover the modes. I hope it works.
@@videomakville That can work. Just add a note here and subtract another there from the penatonic, and you arrive at your modes. Probably not a very 'classical' way of approaching it, but I don't care!
Hey by #7 do you mean the major 7th note?
@@chinmayarolkar635 If we're in A minor, that would be G#, the Harmonic minor note so to speak. I THINK that's a raised 7th but don't quote me.
@@fathuman Ahh I get the context, thanks man
one thing i like about this chanel, is the fact that you invite some other musicians to teach and share their perspective of what to do, how to do it and so... i like the fact that you dont pretend to teach all those concepts wich is something very humble. we musicians learn from each other all time. thats the point
As someone learning to play without a teacher, this video has been a HUGE help. The pentatonic is a great first scale to learn but it gets boring pretty quickly. This is the perfect method for taking incremental steps into other scales. MORE VIDEOS WITH ROTEM PLEASE
this has literally blown my mind. As a intermediate player i feel really lost sometimes on what to learn and what to do when it comes to theory and practice and i felt my approach to the pentatonic scale became stale and as soon as i just saw what you was doing it clicked immediately. You are hands down the best teacher on TH-cam and you deserve all the good things in life that come your way!
For me i think its just being open to learn other styles and emulate other guitarist wich you are not used to. Are you used to emulate: john mayer, hendrix, SRV, john fruscisnte etc.. For me it was like that. Im a blues-y john mayer fan and play a lot of this blues stuff, but i recently discovered gipsy jazz and that is interesting to me and by playing that it has made me better as a guitarist.
Ive never really learned theory untill last 8 years through youtube and things are coming well together now. Been playing for 15 years now.. still a lot to learn and improve on. Agreed on this being a great teacher 😁
You can use simply the pent scale and add whatver you want to give a moody colour. You only have to take care of the 2nd guitarist or keyborder not to hold on or end on sharp neighbours like b7 and #7 over long time. As short notes this dissonant interval can be a spicy add on to your song! Kind regards, Henry
@@johannviirerlendsson4953 l
@@johannviirerlendsson4953 I'm in almost the EXACT same boat lol
This is why using your ears is so important. Almost everything can sound good. And if it doesn't you're usually a half step bend away from something that sounds good.
A music teacher told me that years ago and it was the best advice I've ever received for my playing and songwriting, regardless of instrument.
That's Jazz
@@adamdoran235
No. Jazz is methodical and complex. Fumbling around with your ears doesn't sound anything like Jazz. Unless you're a jazz player.
2 of the most soulfull guitar „teachers“ in one video. Pure liquid gold! Its not only teaching. You both do have an unmatched vibe to me. Inspirational- wonderfull - calm- thanks for making this world a little better
I got so much out of this, following along in my modest way with my guitar, I was sure it was an hour long. Extremely useful, empowering, entertaining, fulfilling for an older person circling back to my childhood love for guitar. Very very musical. Much appreciated.
I have always been adamant that I am a rhythm player with just some basic pentatonic skills with some flavoring learned in some popular blues based hooks in popular music. But THIS approach has motivated me to break out of that box and start exploring. A HUGE deal for an old fart like me to keep pushing my edges. Thanks for the awesome video!!
of ALL the guitar lessons on TH-cam this has got to be the best.
I’ve been using all those “extra” note but I had no idea what they were called. This was a great video!
Keep playing those “extra” notes if they sound good to you. There is theory behind them but “you” know when it sounds right. This was a great video to demonstrate this.
@@jim-michellekelly6495 absolutely agree
@@killabees1 that’s me too but now that I’m learning more theory it has definitely helped me understand why it works and sounds good. It’s definitely helped me understand modes. Until now they were always a mystery.
if you play a note that sounds bad to you, just quickly slide into another note and pretend you did it on purpose
@@seanarooni that’s the blues in a nutshell lol
Pentatonic scale is the only thing we need. Its so awesome that 50 years later were still creating new things with that beautiful scale. Thank you for everything paul. You rock.
I love when Rotem is on here!
Seeing how very intricate sounds can be built based off the simple pentatonic scale give me a lot of hope for my future in playing. Just learned the pentatonic over the entire fretboard and excited to expand!
This is exactly how I approach it and teach my students to approach it - start with the pentatonic (easy to learn!) and then add extra notes to it, one by one. No need to learn all new scales. I've had many intermediate students approach me with their #1 goal being to get out of the "pentatonic rut", and I'm always relieved to hear it, because I know how easy that will be to teach. :) Great video, thanks guys!
These men truly show that tone is in the fingers too, not just the gear. Beautiful playing by both.
Yes!! Amen!!
The fact that you give away lessons like this for free is one of the main reasons I decided to join your Patreon page. This lesson alone opened my mind to so many possibilities.
Special appreciation for been a big fans and thanks for your nice comment on my post and I want you to send me a direct message to my hangouts through my mail or WhatsApp through my mobile number that will be indicated below, also do make sure you add your name to the text so I can know you are the one texting me so I can reply you...
Hangouts Email : davidspaul483@gmail.com
This is just such a perfect example of the issues that surround learning guitar! You can literally put any note over any chord and in some way it will work, it sounds ridiculous and it’s taken me 8 years of playing and an entire degree in guitar to actually relax, and properly experiment! I got caught in the ‘you can’t do that, it’ll clash!’ mindset, it’s so freeing once you drop that! Incredible video by two of my favourite guitarists 🙏🏻🙏🏻
Nice to see Rotem here. Dude is so good. His guitar fills in Adam Neely's Castaways are fire!
As an intermediate player, I've always avoided the Pentatonic scale, not knowing how to make it sound exciting and gone for the Harmonic Minor and more exotic scales instead... until now. I've never been brave enough to improvise solos, prefering to write them instead and sticking to them note for note. But I tried improvising just now using this method and it has blown my mind, I can do it now! Great lesson, a real eye opener. I am so grateful for this. Thank you for bringing this boring scale to life and unlocking my mind, great job! 🙏🙏 🙏
The faces!!! Love how one note contorts their faces! Such feelings, much wow
The late, great, Harold Blanchard; composer on CBS Masterworks ( Quincy Jones, Chick Corea, Hubert Laws. Bill Kanengiser) and so many more. He would say to me "there are 12 notes you use them all." I was at conservatory at the time and doing private lessons with him. As a classical student wanting to expand my jazz knowledge it took a while to understand. This is a good example of what I was to understand years later!!
1:19 playing around with "A minor" is not a good idea Paul. Things might be different in the Netherlands, but it's not okay!
😂😂😂😂 old but gold joke right there lol
What if you played with two different minors, would that comprise majority?
You can't tap or finger A minor!
Lmao 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Maybe he spelled it wrong and the jazzer is also a miner (it pays the bills).
I like that when Rotem hears a good lick he just looks DISGUSTED by how good it is.
When you guys team up, magic happens. More of this please...
MAN, I`ve been playing guitar for quite some time, but NO ONE nailed it like that until now. Congratulation and most of all: THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Amazing! Respect and greetings from the south of Germany!!!!! Thank you so much for this!!!!
+1 for chromatic scale, and more of this guy too please! Love your chemistry together.
Also thank you for teaching me, a guitarist of 15 years, something spicy to add to my improvisational solo jamming! Wish I learned my theory sooner haha.
Thank you, I will use this! Bring Rotem back again, you two are FANTASTIC!
Me: Playing pentatonic scale over the diminished chords
that's me lmao
This comment made me laugh out loud
Best comment by far.. The crazy part it's for a lot of us is truth
I didn’t laugh so I must have a lot to learn. lol. Someone explain
@@sethrose1325 me too but I think your supposed to play a diminished scale?? Idk
I admit to never caring for Jazz--but Rotem might have just converted me--at least to his playing. Amazing! Two extraordinary players in one video! Loved this. I'd been adding these notes over the past few weeks and finding different colors, spices, juice to my playing, so this was confirmation--but vastly nicer than anything I came up with. Thanks for the inside view of beauty in sound. You are both a joy to listen to and watch. Stay Well.
Check out John Scofield
Paul: “Let’s talk about how we can spice up the...”
Me: Totally distracted by the guitar with duct tape on it.
Now i can't stop looking at it
Yes, I'm wondering if it's holding a piece of cork.
I was anxious for Paul hitting the other guitar with the headstock lol
@@neonmasterva probably regrets it...
@@neonmasterva I've been playing in close proximity to other guitarists for years and have only knocked guitars twice. Once was my fault (no damage done). The other time a guy racked a guitar string end right into the sitka spruce of my custom built guitar. Thanks STEFAN!
One of your best strategies of communicating and teaching is put forth here…I absolutely loved this lesson!
This is so cool. I’ve always wanted to make my pentatonic solos more complex and interesting, and already 3 minutes in, I’ve learned something new.
Aaahh! I'm addicted ... to the buttery warm sound of the ES-335! Beautiful. Thank you for playing it, again.
Davids guitar skills is boosting my brain
One day I will play like him🙌🙌
I actually have the opposite problem, but this approach is one that should help me. I was self taught 45 years ago and having previously had a basic piano training I started from the context of the full major or minor scales - pentatonic wasn't mentioned in any of the books I read on guitar back then. So my problem is using too many notes rather than too few - and ending up including the whole scale and thus not having any notes left to use sparingly for changing mood or adding tension. (And not leaving any spaces between notes!)
Having not played for many years I took it up again last year and decided to do it right this time - oh to have had Paul's teaching available back in the 70s!
Perfect !
You are so humble you're still thinking on how to help who's stuck with same old licks. And you nail it. Always. Thanks. T
Maybe this is not musical college studying, but hey, if someone is studying in musical college, he doesn't need youtube vid 😁👍
Thanks. Cheers. Keep it up
This reminds me so much of Ronnie Earl's playing... he uses all this stuff.
I've been playing Blues for ever. It is nice to add stuff like this... but in my experience, applying theory knowledge to Blues dilutes it's soul. Yet, as I mention, Ronnie Earl... his playing is so intuitive, spontaneous, soulful.
I find that taking Pete Townsend's advice, "pick up the guitar and play." Less thinking, more playing... make it feel good...
The use of dynamics in the entire video is so tastefully done!
I've watched you for a few years and you have some amazing content, but for me this was the most useful lesson you've done. Everything seemed to click in place. Also, at the beginning I thought, 'Paul's really changed his hair.'
Stuck playing 5 notes, try adding the other 7.
Ah, the twelveatonic!
"Duodecatonic." It'll be more popular with the hard-core theorists that way.
You laugh but it works really well.
Oh you play chromatic scales?
I like to play the other 7 notes exclusively and not even touch the 5 pentatonic notes. sounds awesome.
Rotem is not only a great player player and a teacher but a motivational speaker for us. ❤️❤️
Lit.... Rotem kills it always
Rotem
Damn, even Paul's scale diagrams are custom shop relics now.
I'm guessing that's the tele but who knows
Thinking in intervals and using them as a roadmap is the single biggest thing that improved my neck awareness and improvisation.. Yes using the pentatonic shapes as the skeleton and then adding the other notes to flesh out is an extremely powerful way of thinking of the guitar!
Must have been so weird filming with someone else and not just a bunch of different versions of yourself 😅😅😅
Great video!
Love this video. This is how I think about it as a beginning guitarist only having played for about a year now. So cool to know that’s how the very experienced players think about it too
Thanks for making this video Paul. I'm sure it gets difficult coming up with new ideas considering how much you have already covered in your many video lessons but this one was perfect for me to grab ideas and expand my use of the pentatonic scales. Loved the guest artist and listening the two of you playing together as well.
Just spent 3 hours with this. One of these best lessons I’ve seen.
more Rotem plz. That man plays some tasty guitar.
My main training has been with Indian Classical music, (Sarode) the guitar I've played longer but stopped playing when I began my journey into learning the Sarode.
Now I again play lots of guitar, but with lots of Sarode influence.
Pentatonics are big in India. There are so many but because they are all taught in the same key,
the variety of scales is absolutely enormous. The minor blues scale for instance,
can be played as a pentatonic ascending but heptatonic descending.
Anyway, it's another view of music.
Good point. There are several variations of the traditional pentatonic scale. All that is required is to play five tones within the octave to be pentatonic.
Rotem is the king. Absolutely in love with his playing. Thanks for introducing me to his channel, Paul!!
Man these collaboration with sivan is awesome...
I subscribed to sivan after seeing him in Paul's videos and now I love his skills..
Rotem is fantastic! Thanks for featuring him. :-)
the hand-off from 11:23 to 11:31 was unbelievable. I replayed it around 10 times
'There's logic to the madness.'
Currently this still goes over my head.
Hang In there.
Victor Wooten's 2-10 lesson is so important here. Groove, feel, technique, space, tone, rhythms, etc. will make every note sound good. It's not the notes.. It's never the notes. You think Jaco and Charlie Parker were thinking about notes? Great playing guys. Love your content, Paul.
Wait. it's all pentatonic?
Paul Davis: always as been
Fantastic. Hope to see a band in the works. A bluegrass guy once said simply "seek and ye shall find" In terms of linking notes up and down the board. and "colors" . Brought me back to my smoky bar room days where playing was chill. Please do more with this guy, what fun.
When Rotem plays it sounds nothing like pentatonic😂😂😂😂😂
Yeah. Phraseology. Don’t let them 5 notes suck, you could add the other 7 notes and voila you got YOU. Great lesson by the way and some sweet playing. 🎸
Pretty much a sneaky way to play modal Jazz
@@kane6529 the whole video is a sneaky way to get guitarists to play changes
@@Benjiroyoface you mean by keeping the pentatonic framework and throwing in these "outside" notes according to the chord being played? I can see how that would be easier than learning chord scales for changes.
Oh man, this video is an entire brilliant course. I have watched it three times and getting something every time. The playing is so soulful as well that I am entranced. Wow, lovely, thank you - it has already changed my playing.
Robby Krieger, the Doors guitarists, used those tricks all the time. Light my fire solo is a good example
Krieger rocking that 9th so hard, in part because the bass line is also hitting that note every other few beats.
This is a wonderful tension melodically.
@@j_freed thanks. I am not a pro, I heard it just by ear without knowing why. I love knowing why 😂
Thanks. Have a good day, cheers from 🇮🇹
How the fark does anyone downvote a video like this? This is GOLD! Thanks for the great videos, you are one of the TH-cam heroes Paul, and an inspiration to millions!
Guitar: "Rotem: Gibson Howard Roberts (idk what else is happening on there)" best description ever ! :P
Best lesson I have seen on TH-cam, the combination of Rotem and Paul''s insights is superb
Great lesson Paul. Practicing around this can really elevate your pentatonic playing, without thinking much about it. Great for people who are feeling like they're stuck in the pentatonic. Great one!
For new guitarists that learn from scales, I'm shure this is learnful. I've played for 40 years and never practised a scale. Just play by listening and expreimenting
.
So good! It’s a simple tool but it can do amazing things. Thank you for putting so much work in these videos 👏
I learned A LOT in those 17 minutes and 7 seconds. Thank you Paul and Rotem!!!
I'd be interested in a video, where you show the rhythm guitar part: Various levels in how to spice up the I-IV-V chord sequence
I have never thought in scale terms, I learnt the old school way of following chord tones - over the years this became my default way of playing; it is only recently since TH-cam guitar players kept referring to the Pentatonic scale that I see this; many paths up the mountain
I have just discovered a guy called Andy Timmons, he seems to be reasonably famous guitarist and exquisite phrasing and so melodic, which is more important to me then technical technique. Listening to this video has really helped me see how he is developing his sound. I have always found the named modes really confusing, they are the same scale started on a different note, since songs don't just run through scales it's difficult to see any relevance of modes. But what is being discussed here is the actual working realities for producing sound, for adding flavour to the otherwise limited series or progression of chords that create what people of earth call.... Music😜
Timmons has some really great phrasing and one of the best rock tones out there.
The formal deinfinitions of scales/modes just feel overcomplicated for what it actually is. It is there so we have a robust and universal system to describe them, but when it comes to learning and understanding them - this is definitely the best approach, start with pentatonic and learn how the other notes work with it and what kind of emotion they introduce
The modes each have their own sound (their tonality) -- even though they're the same seven notes. Which is why it's relevant. It's a nice demonstration of the importance of choosing what you do and which notes you emphasize in your melody and harmony to establish that sound you want instead of some other sound. It's not just the raw notes that have a sound; it's what you do with them, even when you're not running up and down a scale. (See those jokes in the video about "are you Middle Eastern?")
For guitarists, the "same scale starting on a different note" is a nice economy. You don't need to learn 35 patterns to know all the modes all over the neck. Five will do. (And of course they're all really just one pattern: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 2 2 1 2 2 2 1, and pick your own starting point in that cycle and when you want to change strings.)
@@drewdavis2392 Could you elaborate on the 221 pattern?
@@vocalsg13 It's just the interval pattern counting the number of half-steps /semitones to pick out the major scale, e.g. C, +2 half-steps = D, +2 = E, +1 = F, +2 = G, +2 = A, +2 = B, +1 = C again. 2-2-1-2-2-2-1, for short.
Or start somewhere else to get a different mode, wrapping around at the end. Minor/Aeolian, say, starts on the sixth: A, +2 = B, +1= C, +2 = D, and so on. 2-1-2-2-1-2-2. But look at that third number in this minor pattern and read from there: 2-2-1-2-2-2-1, the major pattern we started with. It's the same interval pattern for both, same set of notes, different mode depending on where you start, wrapping around every octave.
Just different ways of writing the same thing. There are seven modes because there are seven notes in that scale, seven different starting places in the one seven-interval pattern. Other interval patterns would give you yet other scales (the whole-tone scale, for instance, 222222, or harmonic minor, 2122131), each of which would have its own set of modes.
I wish this video existed 10 years ago when I was in high school and couldn't figure out what notes I was allowed to play in blues. Eventually I came to the revelation that this video teaches, but it took me awhile to accept it.
Basically, there's no such thing as a sour note. Every note is in key, only at times out of context
Although a note out of context can sure sound like a #$&* up. 😣 Especially when you do nothing about it, or stop playing out of embarrassment! That’s a noob mistake…
I think really good experienced players kind of push through misplayed notes, and you almost don’t notice! They have so many licks and melodic moves immediately at their disposal, they can be all over the map while improvising and still recover in a split second and pull it together…
i tthink its more that if you play a sour note, you have to resolve, when a begginer (or that annying cousing) grabs the guitar and starts playing stuff randomly, they just go on without going back to the key. there is no end. there are some genres of metal that even chromatic solos happen, or even solos where no notes are "in key" but the fact that there is a beggining and the end you feel like you moved through stuff and sat down, not just stood up in your chouch inside a Tornado
If you play a note that sounds bad, quickly slide to an adjacent note and get back on track. If your recovery sounds smooth enough, repeat the exact same sequence of notes, including the sour note to make it sound like you meant to play that. Only experienced musicians will be on to your shenanigans.
Contrary to the comments here, Victor Wooten has a great demonstration where he shows if you play a “wrong” note, simply keep playing it, and it will start to sound right.
@@drsmith4582 and that's Jazz - nice.
I’m a fan of this thinking and have used it for a while, the next step is playing a pentatonic that’s not from the root, for example on the a minor playing e minor pentatonic to add in the 9th or a b minor pentatonic to add the natural 6th or the d minor pentatonic to add the minor 6th. Using pentatonics like this is great fun especially over a one or two chord vamp situation. The way I think of it is of I want it to feel content/known/... then I stick to the root pentatonic, when I want to spice it up I use an other one. Oh a really spicy one is using the c minor pentatonic to add the flat 5 and the flat 9 then off to the c minor pentatonic you add in its natural 6 you can get the root but not behaving like the root
Amazing!!! Both such great teachers, thank you both for the great lesson 🙏🏼
Paul this is an exception lesson not only are you encouraging pentatonic expansion but the energy from both of you in amazing
Paul Gilbert once said about the pentatonic: “The scale that wouldn’t die.”
I always did this instinctively, never taught, or thought of it, in a theoretical way. It's lovely to see that I was hitting that so often. great video! Love it! Playing for 45 years BTW. Once you're familiar with the fretboard everything is possible. Practice is..... worth everything. Wish I had the internet growing up. Thanks Paul, you are really doing great work. Geweldig, zal ik maar zeggen!
and I've just got to add... you guys are COOL. I really enjoyed this (and no, it's not the prozac, I don't use it 😂😂😂 )
I always add a lot of _accidentals_ when playing a solo.
Accidentally tho…
If you hit a bum note just move it up till it sounds good and call it Jazz.
Thank You !! I watched The Blues Scale video too. Major Minor blues.Your speaking lends itself to teaching. You are a good teacher too.
oh my god. this is the collab I didn’t know I needed!!!
th-cam.com/video/qSSYO1XIP48/w-d-xo.html
Great video and Dickie Betts and Duane Allman were famous for spicing up their solos by adding in these extra notes to their solos.
who wants to know more about Rotem's guitar? because I do!
Yeah, I'm curious what's going on with the cork taped between the pickups?
@@MrJustinraines He uses a thumbtack to post his set list there, upside down.
I learnt the power of pentatonic when I started to learn jazz and transcribing Miles Davis trumpet solos into guitar. But the way he phrase it doesnt sounds like typical rock n roll or bluess guitar phrase. Same with jazz guitarist. I realized its not about what scale you play, but what notes you play to lined the CHORD CHANGES. The best way to learn how to use pentatonic scale is learning triads and chord changes.
Man, I used to be locked into playing the pentatonic exactly as written. Of course as the years went on I learned the 3 note per string modes and several other scales used mainly by heavy metal players but through it all I realized I was a pentatonic guy. So I have ended up playing the pentatonic scale with literally nothing off limits. Ok, that’s an exaggeration, but I will find myself using chromatic runs, and any note that sounds good to me. Yet I always just consider myself a pentatonic scale guy. Because I am really. I don’t know all the theory behind it but I know what sounds good. People will ask me what scales are you using to get those licks or whatever and I’ll say “it’s just the pentatonic “ “with a few extra notes for good measure “🤷🏻♂️. I don’t know what else to tell them? It’s just whatever sounds good, but all based out of the pentatonic. It’s definitely nothing new!
This scale unlocked my full potential and now I'm playing carnegy hall! But for real, I never had a natural access to pentatonics, but man I am sold after this video
When major and minor scales both work: the Majinor scale
😂😂😂
thanks very much for this video! I have been stuck playing 7th arpeggios and diatonic scales
forever, now I feel like I can open up the chromatic and keep the easy pentatonic backbone too. And this came easy too, guess it was just the right timing for me to grasp this way of conceptualizing things. Never had such a single easy thing help open so many doors for me.
Imagine you have such two friends...
Being from Southern California
(my family of transplanted vikings arrived in the late 1800s) and really schooled on the guitar players that were changing our live and studio culture pre-rocknroll, we learned that between Blues and Jazz was Swing. "Jump Swing" was huge on the West Coast and that with "Western Swing" gave us rock n roll... those two are what you hear in AC/DC more than pure blues or the variants of Jazz certainly. That major third being very intentional after a very clear and felt minor third was how most of the hits by Louis Jordan or Big Joe Turner started off. (1 m3-M3 5 6 8!) But I teach my California kid students the pentatonic as re-imagined by two Okies, one who resettled in California, T-Bone Walker and one who went east and invented Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Christian. They both do what's in this video but especially T-Bone. Ne never outlined a diminished chord like Charlie did... he simply found all the out notes a half step away and then brought them in to tune with the pentatonic. But how STYLISHLY and BEAUTIFULLY he did it. He (and to a smaller extent the Tympany 5 guitar player Carl Hogan) brought us Chuck Berry... who also distinctly played minor 3 to major 3. A lot of those notes WENT AWAY... even BB King dropped the Jump Swing notes when the British Invasion turned into British Blues Rock... they abandoned the 6... the m3 got bent but rarely all the way up to M3. 9s were gone. .... so what you guys are doing is bringing us back to the origins of big city blues... Jump, Swing... Western Swing, Rock n Roll T-Bone Blues and Charlie Christian Jazz. And what did T-Bone do with his riffs? He played Pentatonic and added all extensions... one of his main riffs has all 12 notes... and he *altered ... that flat 5 especially... in a way that sounds so familiar to us. Kids freak out when they realize they ALREADY know how to play all the notes of the scale and ALL ALTERATIONS a few months after we learn T-Bone solos. This was a fun video. I will share it.
7:42
Paul: are you from the Middle East?🤭
Rotem: *laughs in guitar🎸
I love the simplicity of the pentatonic so much that I haven't been bothered to learn anything else! Now and then I hit the wrong note and realise how cool it actually sounded so I keep using it in and around the pentatonic scale. By using my ear this is how I learn to play. I build around the pentatonic.
Nice megapentatonic scale
I have been playing for over 40 years. I started with 'theory' lessons....and then learned MANY scales, and 'modes'....became very concerned about what mode and scale worked with each other....etc.. I then hit a definitive plateau, where there wasn't much creativity left, but only to get 'faster' . Even getting the speed, I felt thinking in specific scales and especially modes actually constricted me. Luckily? I found myself drawn to blues rock... Clapton, Gilmour...etc... and enjoyed a ton of classic rock... (jazz, country, classical...and others too..., but alot of rock ) After taking a hiatus from any serious playing for a few years....after coming back to playing about 10 or so years ago...I really started to focus on acoustic, and the organic sound. I have always taught lessons , on and off... Since my acoustic rebirth, I basically had an epiphany .... NO 'scales'....no 'modes'... Find your key... everything is SHAPES... as for leads, you need 2 shapes ingrained in your head....no modes, no 'scales'... the standard Pentatonic scale SHAPE ...and the MAJOR scale SHAPE ... Find your key (root). Where the pinky of the Pent shape is....thats where the 'root' of the MAJOR shape is, and where that pinky is, is the ROOT of the next Pent shape. know your shapes...I think of the chord changes as my Main 'home' which is the key of the song....and then the guest houses, which are the chord root of the progression.... When you are on a DOWN beat...you should be at a house... when you hit the 'four'....you might want to be at your MAIN house...all that is safe. What you do BETWEEN the down beats is what makes you , and your lead phrasing original is what you do in between the beats. You are allowed to take a walk away from your house at any point, but remember...you must always get back there (resolve) and then your journey was complete. A BAD note is only BAD if it's left out there to rot. ;) Paul... I have watched a ton of your vids....I enjoy your loop stuff alot, as I run a Loop Station group on Facebook..... however, this is your most on point 'lesson' yet. I have been teaching this as my personal 'method' for 3 years :) good on ya.
Oh, and don't ask me the name of any chord I might be playing at this point either...between tuning full step down to D standard, and using a capo, and partial capo alot... it's all about roots, drones, triads and di-ads and a few cowboy chord shapes, and barre 1, and 2 positions...lol
Dave
facebook.com/groups/loopstationartists/
12:30 This is the end, beautiful friend..
Different notes, just the "drone" thing
Thought the same thing
Paul Davids is the Wim Hoff of guitar teachers...
Brilliant...😎
Thank you Paul...and Rotem.
These two guys are so smoothe, so tasty and so unpredictable that its almost impossible for them to play a bad note or an off colour phrase. EVERYTHING sounds right...👍
“It’s a known problem” 😂😂😂
This is amazing. It'd be great if we had another video explaining a little bit deeper how and when to use each one of those variations (what type of chords they'd fit, etc)