Figured I'd start with the masters of this, and probably the most influential of this style, now most likely Jimi Hendrix was inspired by Curtis Mayfield but he added his own style before passing it on :) and it's used by loads of people now - Frusciante has added to the pool as well and made his own thing from it - it;'s real cool trick to add to your bag!

Pentatonic Bliss

This concept is based on the Pentatonic Scale, Major Pentatonic for Majors and Minor Pentatonic For Minors but we start with the Major Pentatonic licks first - they're the most commonly used.

C Major Pentatonic = C D E G A C
A Minor Pentatonic = A C D E G A

The way these licks work is having two notes played together with a static top note (highest) and then hammering on the lower note to the next scale tone.

Relative Minors

The major licks can often (but not always) be used over minor chords - C Major Pentatonic and A Minor Pentatonic contain the same notes and so a C Major lick should work equally as well as an A Minor lick, but as usual you must use your ears and you'll find sometimes the final note (or notes) might need some tweaking!

Practice The Concept!

This lick gives you most of the tools you'll need to work on and I suggest spending some time (a week?) working on this before getting into the licks! :) Just work on getting your fingers and head around how it works and go off and explore - the next lesson will explore a specific lick to start working into your playing!

Rhythm Lick 1