Active Melody

Learn to play blues guitar.

Sometimes, 5 notes is all you need! Twangy guitar melody using the Minor Pentatonic Scale – EP596

Description

In this week’s guitar lesson, you’ll learn a fun guitar melody (think The Ventures or Duane Eddy) that uses only the 5 notes of the Minor Pentatonic Scale (1 position).

Part 1 - Free Guitar Lesson

Part 2 - For Premium Members

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Slow Walkthrough

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Video Tablature Breakdown

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Comments

  3. Martin P says

    This looks fun Brian. Thanks again.
    I have a suggestion Brian. Why not take a break for Christmas and have a week off. I’m sure all the members would agree to it rather than take a break every 500 lessons.
    You certainly deserve it 😊

  10. Kevin L says

    Thanks again Brian for your teaching style and all the help you give me and I have been playing guitar for over 60 years and doing just fine.
    Have a happy Thanksgiving surrounded by your loved ones.

  11. Jeff H says

    A fun interesting lesson. Love this sound, brings up lots of ideas. You never cease to amaze us. You should take a break at Christmas Brian. I don’t think anyone would complain, you have given us so much. I look for to Saturdays, here in Australia.

  16. Laurel C says

    Great lesson (even though this could be said every week) but it is these minimal note lessons with maximum results is what you excel at Brian, showing us the mileage that can be achieved for a fun catchy arrangement with ‘less is more’. The techniques in the lesson of alternating picking, muting palm and chicken pickin will be very helpful to ‘up’ the playing and speed skills with some time and dedicated practice. So want to get that chicken pickin lick down into a barnyard song. Nice take-a-way with the three boxes (1) 8-10th fret, strings 1 and 2 (2) 5-7th fret, string 3 and 4 (3) 3-5 fret, strings 5 and 6 with playing the same lick and having the same notes (R, b7, b3, 4). It is YES for more of these old school classic sounds including Surf.

  19. John B says

    I love this lesson. I’ve been a premium member for years and I love this lesson, for it’s simplicity, and for the fact that it so easy to add my own personality with my added knowledge that I’ve learned thru the years. A light bulb has gone off and I’m going to start going thru past lessons to find ones like this one. Thank you.

  20. Josef L says

    Hey Brian, I just want to say thank you. I am a big fan of your teaching. I love the same music and your enthusiasm is contagious. Even if I’m not the best guitarist, I don’t give up. Your weekly lessons are an important source of motivation for me. And they also help me not to completely forget my English. Greetings from Switzerland, Josi

  23. Olivier P says

    Thank you very much Brian. Like everyone, I look forward to discovering every Saturday morning (here in Switzerland) what you have concocted for us. Every time a real pleasure. Maybe you could prepare us some Christmas music in the rock-roll style ?

  32. Martin K says

    Hi Brian,
    This a fun lesson. You make the speed, palm muting and picking look so easy.

    Question: I keep defaulting to economy picking (same directions as string change) vs. hybrid (alternate) picking which requires a bigger movement when changing strings. Is there a disadvantage to doing this? (Example. – I’ll use two downs in a row when going from string 6 to 5, or two ups in a row when going from string 2 to3).

    Thanks,
    Marty

    • Brian says

      that’s not as efficient (in my opinion) – the 2 downstrokes… but then again, i look at someone like Bill Monroe who would use lots of consecutive downstrokes in some of his lead breaks… so i guess it’s what you prefer

  37. Alan V says

    I love all your lessons, Brian, but this minimalist stuff is right up the top for me. For understanding what I’m doing and feeling confident, it is magic. Those simple tips like just aiming for the main note of the V chord, or varying any chord with its IV chord (the list goes on) are worth their weight in gold

  38. Aaron P. says

    I love the groove on this one! It’s been stuck in my head and I swear my foot was tapping along to this one in my sleep! It has really helped me work on my tempo. Brian, I agree with a lot of others, you deserve a good break off. You will not hear your members complain one bit, we have plenty of material to go back and revisit if you take some time off for yourself. You definitely deserve it!

  44. Michael J says

    G’day Brian,
    I am so pleased you mentioned Dwayne Eddy, God rest his soul, because this is how I just had to learn guitar.
    I think of his great tune, “Because they’re young!”, and it takes me straight back to those golden years of music.
    I just love this stuff, and thank you so much, I am so grateful.
    M. J. Kilmore, Australia.

  46. elerouge says

    Can i isolate and play only the rhytmn track with soundslice? I would like, let’s say play this song at 80% of the speed but i don’t have that track at 80% but only 100% (too fast) or too slow.

  47. Dave W says

    now this is some great picking ,Sweet , have a Fun Turkey day Brain
    going on any more road trips for Guitars ??my collection up to 24 and growing , like a lot of things one just not enought ,Ha

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