“Bonus Clapton 75th Birthday” – E Minor Pentatonic Position 4 Question

[Austin T. Walden]

Greetings all,

I’ve been playing long enough that I’m almost embarrassed to ask the question.

I went back through this lesson.

Bonus – Eric Clapton Unplugged Style – Premium Member

In bars 2 and 3 of this play by yourself Blues song in E Minor Brian says he’s playing the E minor Pentatonic in position 4.

https://activemelody.s3.amazonaws.com/bonus/eric-clapton-unplugged-75-birthday.pdf

My understanding of Position 4 for E minor is

7 — 10
8 — 10
7 — 9
7 — 9
7 — 10
7 — 10

My question is why is Brian playing the 9th fret on the High E string (C#) instead of using the 10th fret D string. I mean, obviously it sounds good, when Brian is playing it but I am really struggling to know why.

Does being on the 5 Chord for the Intro of the song contextualize it in some way? Or, is Brian adding the 6th for flavor? I wish I could understand why he’s grabbing that note.

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[charjo]

Totally fair question, Walden.
I think it must be that he’s taking the note from the major pentatonic. So this would be a mix of position 4 minor pentatonic and position 5 of the major pentatonic. I know I’m still not used to mixing the scales in this position, although I’m working to see the overlay in all five positions.
One other thought. Is he actually doing a kind of 5, 4, 1, 5 turnaround to start the song? That might be the 4 chord he is playing over and the C# could be a nod to that.
John

[Michael K]

The key is E. It’s a E A B7 classic blues progression (I IV V). So the five of B is F#. The five of F# is C#. In the intro he uses this same C# note for the same exact reason. Although, you could think about it as temporary blend of the major pentatonic scale since that has E F# G# B C#. So yes, the main scale is Em pentatonic and he did not really mention that he was blending the major pentatonic in there, but that’s likely what is going on here.

I see the confusion, because he did say he was staying within the Em pentatonic scale when clearly he did not. He also said he wasn’t following the chords in the progression, but he made a big point out of landing on the B note in the intro due to the fact that the next chord is the B7. I’m not going to over think it and will just take note of these options that are available to us while in the minor pentatonic over a Blues style progression.

This is a great blues composition for sure.

[Michael K]

Just had another thought on that C# note that I didn’t realize before. Could it simply be derived from the A7 chord using the D7 shape at the 9th fret? That makes the most sense actually. See attached image.

[Laurel C]

He was playing in the Eminor pattern 4 scale, but the move was a ‘cool embellishment off the lick’ as Brian stated. The embellishment where the C# note was added is in the Dorian Pattern 4, still in the Minor Mode family which is why it works as the 6th. But the emphasis seemed to be more on the embellishment of a lick using the 6th, as further on he uses a Joe Walsh lick rather than keeping within the parameters of the scale in that sequence.

[Austin T. Walden]

Thanks so much Laurel for the context.

Do you know any lessons off the top of your head that might address that?

I’ll search for embellishing the minor pentatonic or something like that within the site.

—-

[Laurel C]

Austin, I think the best one is Ep455 : How to Improvise Over a 1 Chord Jam, using 2 Scales. The E Minor Pentatonic scale and the E Dorian Scale together to jam over an E minor groove. There is a 6th used on the high string included in that one too.

[Michael K]

Just type in the word “blend” or “blending” into the lessons search box.

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