The Guitar Explained

The Guitar Explained Video Series

EXLA100 Series

Introduction to Lead Guitar -- The Open Em Pentatonic Scale & 12 Bar Blues

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Lead Guitar -- Open Position -- The Open E Minor Pentatonic

EXLA100

Exercises for people who have never played lead guitar. Will begin with a look at the open E minor pentatonic scale. This is a common and important lead scale. If you are just beginning with lead guitar, then this is the place to start. A few ideas, and a few things to keep in mind before we begin the warm-ups.

EXLA101

Have your guitar ready. We will look at the individual notes of the open E. minor pentatonic scale. This scale has an open string and one fretted note on each string. We'll warm up by alternating between the open string and the fretted note on each string. Play along with my examples.

EXLA102

More play along examples. There are two types of pentatonic scales, the "pure" pentatonic, and the "expanded" pentatonic, which is the same thing with one note added to each string. Here I include a few more ideas before we actually start playing. Our first playing exercise is going to be to play this 12 note pentatonic scale position over a slow blues background track. Have your guitar ready, and play along with me. All examples show tablature before the play along.

We'll start by playing the pentatonic scale ascending, from the lowest note to the highest note. Then, we will reverse the note order, and play descending, from the highest note back down to the lowest note. Next, we will warm up on the four notes on the two high strings.

EXLA103

One more three note warm-up on the high strings before we moved to the low side of the scale. we will begin with a round based on the lowest for notes of this open pentatonic scale. Next, we will add two more notes to make this a one octave scale. Then, as with almost everything we do, we are going to reverse the note order. these sounds will probably remind you of leads that you already know.

Finally, we will take our ascending pentatonic scale and add two notes to form a one octave version of the "expanded" pentatonic scale.

EXLA104

Picking up where we left off in the last video, we will take the "expanded" pentatonic note order that we just looked at, and reverse the order.

Returning to the high strings, I will walk you through a couple of more warm-ups. These are very common, extremely important note orders. You will probably use them every day of your life.

EXLA105

Switching back to the low side of the scale, we'll start with playing the first four notes over the track just like we did before, only this time faster. Then we move to the six note pattern that we played before, but this time with a different rhythmic swing.

Returning to the high strings, I will walk you through a couple of more warm-ups. These are very common, extremely important note orders. You will probably use them every day of your life.

EXLA106

A few ideas before we go to the movable forms of this scale. I talk here about how to memorize rhythms, how reproducing a rhythm is different from counting a rhythm. Actual counting isn't really necessary. A little about open shapes verses movable shapes.

lead guitar examples continue at less than EXLA300, where we will look at the pentatonic scale in a movable shape. Each of the open strings has been replaced by a fretted note at the fifth fret.

Lead Guitar -- Movable Positions -- The A Minor Pentatonic

EXLA300

A few ideas before we go to the movable forms of this scale. I talk here about how to memorize rhythms, how reproducing a rhythm is different from counting a rhythm. Actual counting isn't really necessary. A little about open shapes verses movable shapes.

lead guitar examples continue at less than EXLA300, where we will look at the pentatonic scale in a movable shape. Each of the open strings has been replaced by a fretted note at the fifth fret.