Pentatonic Licks
Overview
Pentatonic scales have been used by some of the greatest guitar players of all time. Below are a few pentatonic licks I created that are worth learning about and incorporating into your playing. I highly encourage you read the description of the pentatonic lick and make sure you can understand and apply each pentatonic lick into different keys on the guitar. If you're interested, I have a link to each pentatonic lick you can download and work on for your own education purposes. The free PDF download is located directly below each video demonstrating the lick. If you are unfamiliar with pentatonic scales, please review my other free lesson post that explains them in more detail. If you need additional help with learning the pentatonic licks, ask your private lesson guitar teacher for clarification. If you would like to learn more, Dylan Baker Music offers private guitar lessons in Salt Lake City. Please contact us to enroll in lessons today!
*Please note that all pentatonic licks are based off the techniques and ideas each guitarist demonstrates in their individual playing style, the licks are not derived from specific songs of theirs. Furthermore, each highlighted guitarist is incredibly diverse and complex in their playing and they are infinitely better at guitar than I am. I'm merely inspired by their musical contributions and I chose to break down a few techniques that they demonstrate in their playing. The following licks and explanations discuss only a small fraction of their musical approach and greatness to the instrument, any simplification is intended to make the learning process more accessible for a wider audience.*
Pentatonic Lick In the Style of Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page is one of my favorite rock guitar players of all time. I'm awestruck at the level of intensity and emotion he captures in his playing. Page uses a lot of pentatonic and blues scales in his playing, he plays the scales at such a high skill level that I never grow tired of hearing him improvise. I arranged this rock pentatonic lick within the key of B minor. It's played at a slow-moderate tempo, but due to the eighth note triplets and sixteenth note rhythms, it seems like it's played very fast. A common technique that Jimmy Page is very skilled at is by quickly phrasing his improvisation using a combination of repetitive bends or bend releases on the guitar. The first three beats of measure one demonstrates this technique well. Measure two, beat three demonstrates the bend technique similar to measure one followed by a pre-bend & bend release on beat four. The third measure continues the pentatonic lick using the pull-off technique on beats two and four where the third scale degree is moving down a minor 3rd to the root.
Download the pentatonic lick in the style of Jimmy Page.
Pentatonic Lick In the Style of Stevie Ray Vaughan
Stevie Ray is a high energy and soulful player who has his roots drenched in the blues. This pentatonic lick demonstrates a repetitive triad riff in the first measure with playing an A minor triad for the first three beats before moving moving up a whole step to B minor and returning back to A minor on beat four. Stevie Ray and many other great rock and blues players demonstrate the bend and bend release technique that I notated on beats three and four of measure two. Stevie Ray is a legendary blues guitarist that mainly uses the Blues scale in his improvisation. All of the string bending in this lick incorporates the blues scale. If you're unfamiliar with the blues scale, just try to visualize the minor pentatonic scale primarily as you play through this lick. I will cover the blues scale in a future blog post.
Download the pentatonic lick in the style of Stevie Ray Vaughan
Pentatonic Lick In the Style of George Harrison
George Harrison tends to display a similar stylistic approach to Jimmy Page of repetitive bending and pre-bending techniques. However, one significant difference between the two players is that Harrison tends to use a slower, melodic and riff-oriented approach to his improvisation compared to Page's more intense and vigorous approach. This lick is written in the key of G minor and it begins on an upbeat of beat 3. The beginning note is a pre-bend of a step and a half, so make sure you can hear the B flat note that you are pre bending to. The entire lick here is to be played in 10th position. There is one area in the 5th measure where I briefly move out of position where I slide up from the 11th fret to the 13th fret on the 2nd string, but I immediately return to 10th position.