you hi this is Brian with active melody comm in this week's guitar lesson we're going to take a look at a slowdown in dirty blues it's so much fun to play and it's actually pretty slow it's not like super over-the-top fast so even if you're fairly new to playing lead you should be able to follow along with this it's all played in the key of G and I'm going to break down everything that I played note for note in the intro now a lot of what we're going to be focusing on is the major pentatonic scale so when you play blues it's very instinctive to jump right into that minor pentatonic scale a lot of us do I do it everybody does that at some point when you're playing blues but there's some really cool stuff that you can do when you're playing the major pentatonic scale and so I'm pulling licks from Howlin wolf there's some Elmore James stuff there's also some Jimmy Vaughn influence in this and I've got the lessons split into two parts in this video we're going to take a look at the first half if you like to watch the second half as well as download the tablature and the mp3 jam track which is pretty cool it's got a horn section and everything and I've got it in two keys so you can practice playing it in the key of G which is a key I did it in but I've also got the key of a so you can practice transposing everything that you're learning and playing it in a different key that way you're really starting to put all of this into practice you can get all of that at acting melody calm just look for EP 183 that's a lesson number for this lesson so let's go ahead and get started with part one alright so let's start this lesson right away with a take away now I like to work these into all the lessons that I do takeaways are just little nuggets of information that I share throughout the the video and things that you can apply right away to your playing and usually they're just simple little concepts but to me that's how I've learned how to play the guitar is just by picking up little pieces it's not any big you know study in theory or anything it's just little nuggets and you put them all together and they they become you that becomes your style so as I mentioned in the intro a lot of what we're going to be learning or playing on is the major pentatonic scale now explain what the major pentatonic scale if you don't know what that is I'll explain what that is in a minute but here's the Nugget here's the takeaway so I like to tie everything back to a chord shape it helps me mentally it also helps me vision on the guitar helps me to be able to visualize where we're at so if we're playing the G major Barre chord because this song is in the key of G and the first chord is a G chord it's our one chord I would be barring the third fret and then these three fingers represent an E chord if you play an E chord down in first position slide it up to here that's a G major Barre chord now if I take play just the top three strings of that bargain it looks like this that's also a G chord and just blend it up here so I'm borrowing the first two strings on the third fret and then this finger goes down the fourth fret third string now when I'm playing these notes those are three notes out of that major pentatonic scale pattern - so you've already got three notes just by playing the chord we're going to add we're going to add three more notes so if I have fifth fret second string fifth fret first string and then the seventh fret first string look at that little pattern that you just created it kind of makes sense when you look at it visually you're these are like little box patterns you're skipping a fret except for this fourth fret third string everything else is following a very sequential pattern in terms of you know notes and then skipping a fret so anyway if you tile that back to the chord shape you can do a lot in terms of improvising with just that if you don't learn anything else in this lesson walk away with that so if I were to improvise a blues in the key of G using just those notes major pentatonic scale improvisation it would sound like this I was tempted to go into some other stuff but I'm just trying to show you that you could play entire solos very happy very positive sounding solos using the major pentatonic scale and that's what the major pentatonic scale gives you it gives you a more happy feel you know as opposed to the minor pentatonic scale which is more sad more bluesy so so there there's one little takeaway just play around with that now included in this in this lesson for premium members there's two jam tracks so that there's a one in the key of G there's also one of the key of a I would recommend you taking both of those and just trying to do that I mean just see what you can do noodle around you don't have to worry about what the chords are we're not playing against the chord changes necessarily we're just playing staying within the key but do it in a you can do some bends you could do some slides you can but you're just playing off of those notes okay so I mentioned I would just discuss the real briefly than the major pentatonic scale if you're confused as to what all this means when I talk about pentatonic scales I do have a blues lead course which is available at active melody calm I've got all five patterns of the minor pentatonic scale but the major pentatonic scale is exactly the same as those minor pentatonic scale patterns the only difference is you move everything this way three frets it's that simple so if I were an a I'm just gonna there's your a minor pentatonic scale pattern one slide everything down one to three frets there's your a major pentatonic scale so and if you don't believe me just try it just put on a jam track or try playing along with a record or whatever as long as you know the key the song is in find that root key and then go this way three frets and because you're right in that major pentatonic scale which gives you a more happy feel so to count this thing in I went 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 so it comes in on the end of 4 and I play those two notes now these two notes that I'm playing are right out of those notes in that pattern that I just showed you so that's why I wanted to start with that so this will kind of put it in context and you'll understand where these are coming from so if that first note is on the 3rd fret 2nd string and then we go up to the 5th fret 2nd string so we go 1 then right on the 1 there so it's 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 so that down stroke I'm hitting the 2 strings that strings 1 & 2 on the third fret that's the one of the next measure so okay now that we got the count in this is this is what we're going to learn now so it's and so what I'm doing there is I'm going hitting strings 1 & 2 then I do an up stroke and hit just string one then we do one into again then I play the fifth fret second string and we're going to do one and two again then there's an upstroke fifth fret first string see these notes are right out of what I showed you at the beginning now the song goes to the four chord we go to the C and what I did was uh I went a little walk up here so this is a more of a chromatic scale spilling out over the C part so I'm starting that on the third fret second string the fourth fret second string and now some of you were going to say hey wait a man that note wasn't in what you showed us and you're right it isn't but a lot of times when you have these well actually all times I would say when you've got two notes apart like this you can play the note in between those as as a step in the in the sequence and just sort of it's bridging the gap between those two notes so anyway come up to the fifth fret second string and then I played the third fret first string twice back to the fifth fret second string and then watch this bow a very quick little hammer on between the third fret and the fifth fret on this first string this is a Down stroke with the right hand so when we look at that it goes let's put it all together now from the beginning we have no I slid into that I didn't mention that but I play those two and then I slid in with my ring finger onto that fifth fret second string there's an extra beat there so you got to really kind of pay attention to your timing then we go right back now the song is going back to the G chord so let's go back to the beginning we'll repeat this there's your back to the one there's your little triple and I'm just keeping my bar here on the third fret first two strings I'm gonna hammer on to the fifth fret second string and then hit in the third fret first string with an upstroke okay and now from here what I did was I went now that may sound really complicated you think well how did you even think of that well if you look at what's happening remember I showed you I showed you that note there's that seventh fret first string what's cool about this note and I should have mentioned this as we were going through the little takeaway here's another takeaway is this note is part of another version of the G chord so if you've got a G chord here you've also got a G chord here now all I'm doing for this is I'm just look at the shape I'm making that's the same shape as a D chord down in first position I'm playing it here so that my index finger and middle finger are on the seventh fret so now when you're playing a G chord or comping or you're improvising you've got some different positions to play that G chord just to make it voiced a little different and have a different feel so I'm mentioning all that because when I play this I'm just playing the top two strings I'm not playing all three strings of the G chord just those two out of that chord so this note was one of those that I showed you and then it's it's harmonized note was right here so that's the eighth fret second string but but the way that I visualized that in the way that I can improvise in this style is I knew I knew these notes and I knew that when I come up here I'm connecting this G chord so now I could do play off any of those notes so that's that makes that make a lot more sense I think so that's just down down up down down down up down I'm also sliding into it each time now watch this walk it down and that's getting into that g7 chord because in my ear I can hear you know we're about to go to the four chord and the chord that I always think of that you know right before you go to that four chord is that seventh chord it's an unnatural transition to get you the next chord so that's what I did I just in my head I could hear that seven chord walking down to here that note is that your is in your jisub so that's all I'm going from here down with fret and then down a fret we're down so that my middle finger is on the fifth fret first string ring fingers on the sixth fret second string great little transition remember that if you're improvising and you're about to go to a four chord that's one little trick you can use not a trick it's a technique I should say okay now we're going to the C chord and then I went that we've already done so that's that little walk up on the from three four five there's that same little hammer on between the third fret and the fifth string though I'm sorry the third fret and the fifth fret on the first string and then I went just to give it a little bit of a punch that's kind of a Freddie King technique you hear him do do that that and you know something like hide away his version of hide away but to use that technique I'm just going back and forth between the third fret and the fifth fret on the second string I just did one down stroke it's just a hammer-on pull-off hammer-on pull-off so your finger looks like that now some of you may want to use your middle finger if that's easier so experiment with those two fingers I find it easier to use my ring finger now so you say well how long do I hold that just feel feel it out you can it you go so that your next note which is the third fret first string is on the next beat so it hold it until you get to that next beat okay now I'm just keeping this bar down noticed that on the third fret first two strings so then I come up and play the third fret first string I'm going to hit now the third fret second string and I'm going to go that's going right into those notes that I showed you at the beginning of this I'm still noodling around in that major pentatonic scale so from here I'm going to slide up then we're going to go to the first string and we're going to start on the fifth fret and slide up for the seventh red go down down up down good friend third fret and then I played so that's fifth fret on the second string third fret on the second string and then there's the bar they're just naturally bars there's the first string on the third fret so that's how it should sound from a timing okay that's a lot of information let's back up now and we'll play everything from the beginning so here we go we have 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 okay now we're going to play this lick this is really cool you'll use this a lot I hope you you put this into your arsenal as well that's really cool so what I'm doing now I'm barring the first three strings on the second fret and I'm starting by hammering on to the fourth fret on the third string that's between this third fret and I'm starting with the bar there on the third fret and then we're going to play now and I'm just thinking the G chord here so I'm gonna play the second string first string there's that cheek or now I'm going to go this is where we're getting off the course of the major pentatonic scale we're just going to start touching now in the minor pentatonic scale so that's what this note is this is the sixth fret second string fifth fret second string third fret second string and then so I'm keeping this bar the whole time then I put my ring finger down on the fifth fret third string and then play strings two and one see the ripe on this bar that cool I really like that effect I'm not sure where I got that we do another will hammer on just like we started the lick back to the fourth fret there on the third string and then away and that's how I concluded that part and that's just the first this is going right in back into that minor pentatonic scale now so first string third fret back to the sixth fret second string so then I play a triplet that goes and that's just fifth fret third fret second string fourth fret third string and then there's the third fret fourth string and I hit that I pushed it a little bit sharp there and then I come down to the fifth fret of fourth string so let's play through that last little look there get your timing right on that that's going to be probably your biggest challenge more than playing the notes so notice I held that note out the second time I came to it just hold it out so let's back up on one more time you can really just start to feel it it's all in the tab as well now we're going to the 5 chord which is the D chord and I went this is another little takeaway lots of the takeaways in this lesson so when you're playing a blues and you go to the five chord this is a lick that I just instinctively go to because I can see how it plays off of the one chord I always just think of home base this is home base everything branches off of this is another branch in that tree and so when we go to the five chord I start here and I'm going to slide up to the 7th fret 2nd string let me show you the notes and I'll show you how you can think about the notes 7th fret 2nd string then 5th fret 1st string so it's a triplet we're gonna go so I'm sliding into that each time the down stroke and then doing to up strokes so those are the notes but look at where those are so here's one way to think of it if you play D chord you know how to make the a chord shape out of the Caged system like the top part of that chord will look like that well that's what sliding into the D chord that way says one way to think about it but the other way is just to remember how that plays off of the one chord so where these two fingers are this fret here I know that I can come up to this little extension for the 4 the 5 chord and it's going to work every time so if you're in the key of a sharp you've got that lick you don't have to think about the cord you just think about these little patterns these branches off of this tree so after I hit those twice I went oh it came back down slid as soon as I hit the seventh fret second string is slid to the fifth fret third fret second string hit that twice okay and now we're gonna do that little trill thing again just like we did same strengths between the third fret and the fifth fret on the second string I hit it twice one two okay so let's just go to play from the D chord up to that point now watch this like this is really cool what I'm playing there is is it remember I showed you that the the major pentatonic scale was the same as the minor pentatonic scale we just moved this way I'm just going right in to think of it as pattern one but I'm playing it in the major pentatonic scale for the for the key of G and so that's where all these notes are coming from I'm starting by sliding I've got my middle finger on the second fret third string sliding up to the fourth fret ring our index finger goes down to the third fret second string then I play the open one string that's one of the things that's nice about this you can take advantage of that open string that open g string or open E string rather so if you were doing this in the key of a for example you play you don't you're not able to hit that open string like you can now I could in this for this G I could blame and that would have been technically right it's all the right notes but I like to take advantage of those open strings that sound is just so cool okay so then we're gonna after we play that three two and one your string numbers I don't know if I remember I showed you this but that's the third fret second string then we're going to go slide right back down to the second fret the third string g-string open third train and then we're going to come to the second fret fourth string and hit that and then take your finger off so you get your open D note and then you're gonna play the open G or the open third string make sure your guitars in tune so you just need to learn how to play that in different positions when you're playing it any type of playing of Blues in G and you're doing that major pentatonic scale stuff you've got that open and I know some of you probably saying well how would you even remember that well you'll just remember these little licks over time as you do them and as you play blues and G you'll remember what what leverage points you have there and there's some an a and there's some in D and so forth so there's one other piece to this and that's the turnaround and the turnaround is pretty simple it's one that you've probably heard a lot of times but I want you to be able to do this now and be able to play this in any key it's really easy and just remember where it plays off of the one chord so to do the turnaround remember I showed you how to play the G chord here but I also showed you this little D chord shape there the D chord shape but it's the G chord well that's how we're starting this so instead of making that whole chord I'm just using strings 3 & 1 and those are both on the seventh fret here and I'm going to play string 3 1 3 that's the pattern 3 1 3 3 1 3 3 1 3 now I use my ring finger when I'm hitting the 1 string to pluck it you can either do that or you can pick it whichever is easiest for you I've seen it done both ways it's easier for me to pluck it and I slide that down one fret sliding down another friend and then we're going to conclude it with that little hammer on there on the hammer on goes between the third fret and the fourth fret on the third string and then I hit the one string so let's do that Turner now apply that to something else try it in a g-sharp how would you do it where would it be well just start doing your math a few words that coordinate the other courts and you can now you can start to use this look anytime you're in a jam or you're writing your own music or whatever it's it's been used a million times it's kind of predictable but it still it's great I mean it's just it was so it's something you should know how to do and then to conclude that I went and that's just a half band here on the fifth fret second string so it's not a full Bannister Bend and release third fret second string and then I played the fourth fret third string I can't remember actually when I tabbed it if I have a 4th fret third fourth fret third string or the fifth fret third either those notes and work you could do it that way or you can do it that way so you have two versions of that you could do and then I concluded they're on the third fret second string and that becomes the entire first half now the second half gets into another whole part where we get into some some other stuff which is really cool all right let's back up now before I conclude I want to go through this one more time I'll go through it slowly and and give you one final version and then I'll see you in part two so here we go you Oh