First of all, that one lesson that Ben gave on the pentatonic scale at the last Athens camp has been paying huge dividends not only in my playing, but in one of my students playing … Roger Hill.
Today we jammed in a minor. Of course you can use the C major Pentatonic scale over that - that is awesome.
And the a minor Pentatonic scale is just a version of the C major pentatonic scale, but you start on A instead of C blah blah blah!
Most of us know that. Today however, Roger and I talked about the “blue” notes in a minor - that would be the flat three, the flat five and the flat seven. We focused on the flat five because that’s the crunchiest one of the bunch.
I had Roger focus on ACDE flat for his line while I just comped on the a minor chord. Sounded really cool. Then without telling him, while he was soloing, I switched from an a minor to an F chord…, his eyes blew wide open because now all of a sudden AC DE flat takes on a whole different vibe when played underneath an F major cord. So he developed that line and then I started just switching at my desire from a minor to F and then to C major. That sounded amazing. Then we took Ben’s lesson on playing the Pentatonix scale where you start on the 5th degree of the key and then go up the pentatonic pattern and we used that pentatonic pattern to take us to different parts on the neck. In the key of a minor you have a minor open position, then you have bar across the bottom three strings at the fifth fret, and then a D minor shape with the first finger at the eighth fret and then basically a D major shape up with the 12th threat. And the Pentatonic scale could take us into any one of those shapes. I’m blathering right now because watching Roger expand his solo over a minor using those shapes and that Pentatonic pattern that Ben taught us to get to those different places on the neck was a thing of beauty to witness. Ben, you rocked my world with that simple little pattern something that you think I would’ve known, but didn’t.
And for those of you who Teach you know what I’m about to say. Watching a student ramp up to the next level of their playing ability before your eyes is a thing of beauty to behold. Roger started targeting that flat five or (E flat) everywhere around the nec… , no matter what chord shape he was in he went and found that flat five note because it sounded so cool.
Sometimes people ask me why I teach. This is why. I love what I do. And Ben, I love what you do!
Paige