Guitarlincs - Free Guitar Music

Why G minor? Everyone plays in A or E minor? Well, it's the same shape and while everyone knows the A minor pentatonic box (often wrongly called the blues scale) THEN ALONG COMES SIR  (HI SIR!) AND HE WANTS YOU TO PLAY IT IN G BECAUSE IT'S EASIER FOR THE CLASS!

OK... It's actually pretty easy - and the right key for Smoke On The Water too. Here is the box:

The notes I have highlighted in red are the best ones to start from and keep coming back to when improvising - the root (tonic) and the 5th (dominant)

I call them anchor notes because they keep you safely anchored in the right key.

The notes highlighted green are the best bends. OK - yes! You can bend any note to any other note of the scale, but those are the most commonly used and the easiest to sound good with. Each one should be bent up a full tone (two frets).

If unfamiliar with correct bending technique ask your teacher. You should always "back up" bends for control and power and to avoid injury. This means two or even three fingers push the same string across the fretboard! Great exponents of bending this way are Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan, B.B.King, Eric Clapton, Ritchie Blackmore, Dave Gilmour and of course Jeff Beck.

Now what is really neat about this shape is you can also play and improvise in B flat major just by emphasizing different anchor notes:

The root on 6 is now played by your little finger. You know the shape is moveable so this gives you access to any major key! By adding a couple more notes to make it a blues scale, you can get a fantastic bright happy rock sound!

So, in short the pattern I have drawn for you below is G minor blues scale if you keep emphasizing G and D in your improvising. If you emphasize Bb and F instead it becomes Bb Major Hybrid Blues Scale which is a whole different animal and that is what I call really neat!

Now off y'all go to Sweet Home Alabama....

As promised.... Firstly, a link to a sibelius score:

Diads in G minor pentatonic - click here for free music

Secondly, what is a diad? Simply, it is two notes played together.

These diads are on adjacent strings, therefore easy to use!

Before you tell me, I know there are others, many, many others.... but these are the easily accessible ones that do not involve hybrid picking, muting or finger picking. Of course there are many more in different scale positions too, but this is a start for you to experiment with!