Blues Lead Guitar: Position 5 Scales #15of20 (Guitar Lesson BL-025) How to play

Justin's Completely Free, Blues Lead Guitar Lesson BL-025. Lesson 15.

In this guitar lesson you will learn the minor pentatonic scales and blue notes in position 5.

Find the related course notes on the following link:
http://justinguitar.com/en/BL-025-MinPentBluesPos5.php

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

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In this lesson we are going to be talking about

Position 5 of the minor pentatonic scale

and the related blue note,

or blues scale,

depending on which way you look at it.

This is a bit of funny way,

right up the the dusty end of the guitar neck now,

So I'am going to show you actually 2 different fingerings for this scale,

depending on where you are on the guitar neck.

Now for the licks, we are going to be right up the dusty end with the 3rd finger right up on the 17th fret

so really quite far up.

The same scale can actually be played with the 3rd finger or the Root,

I should say,

because we are going to use a different finger for it down on the 5th fret.

Now, this is a good time to talk about this thing, this 'Octave Rule'

The '12th fret Rule'

Now, on the guitar you will notice, there is double dots of the 12th fret

and thats because it's exactly 1 octave higher than the open strings

So, if we have got "E" (open 6th string) on the thickest string,

If we play on the 12th fret of 6th string,

we've got another 'E'

It's the same thing, just 1 octave higher.

And it's the same for any lick that you have learnt.

And in any key you can always play 12 frets higher.

So if we learnt a lick in position 1, what's a nice easy position 1...

(.....) plays it!

for example,

which is base around with my 1st finger kind of hang around in the 5th fret

like Box 1 of A minor Pentatonic scale,

that same lick can be played 12 frets higher

so, 12 + 5 equals 17!!

So, if you go right up the 17th fret (.......) you can play the same one.

(......)

So, this is called the '12 fret Rule'

So, anytime you play anything down the neck,

you can move it 12 frets higher & play the same thing.

You'll even notice that the dots relate...

so what we've got here are dots at the 3rd, 5th, 7th, 9th [frets]

This here, this dot right up on the 15th fret of course, is 12 frets higher than our 1st dot on the 3rd fret

Then we've got a dot at the 17th fret which relates back to a dot at the 5th fret,

because they're all 12 frets apart, of course.

So you can almost think of from the 12 fret up is kind of like a second guitar neck, if you like,

A second area of the guitar neck.

Now, this scale that we are doing now, this position 5,

all the licks we are gonna be doing, right up here,

which is, it sounds like this...

And for that scale I'm using my 1st & 3rd finger

all of the way up and all the way down.

But if I was playing it right down here,

with the Root note at the 5th fret of the thickest string,

Then I would probably have used my 1st & 4th finger all of the way up

because using 1 & 3 is a bit of a nasty stretch there

between the 2nd fret & the 5th fret.

It's possible. Some guys do play it like that,

Just, for me, I find it kind uncomfortable to play that wide

so I tend to use 1st & 4th fingers when I am playing

anywhere where the frets get kind of wide apart.

Ok... here we go for Position 5...

We are starting with our 3rd finger up on the 17th fret of the thickest string,

& we are gonna be going with 3rd finger,(on 17th fret of thickest)

then 1st and 3rd fingers on 15th & 17th frets [of 5th string]

then 1st finger moves back to the 14th fret

and we go 1-3 again, 3 staying in the 17th fret but1st finger moves back.

Then the same on the next string,

first finger moves back to the 15th fret

and we are going 1-3 the 3rd finger still staying in the 17th fret.

And the same again.

Again finish it starting and ending on the root note,

Here we go just straight up and down, nice & slow.

Now, if we look at the notes we can bend from this scale,

we are not gonna bend the root note,

bending the root note is generally a bad idea,

This next note is the Note C, which is this minor 3rd.

And this is that good note to put a curl on...

So definitely if you can those, whack a curl on... thats a good one!

The next note, the note D , & this is a good one as well.

We can either bend this a tone...

bit awkward & kind of unusual but possible

and we can also that's the one we can reach the blue note by bending a semitone.

Quite a nice little one.

Very fat sounding when you play on the thick strings, this far, up the neck

But this is kind of unusual, so...

(....) we've talked about that one already,

Here this finger, here, very unlikely

that we are gonna do any string bending with the first finger there,

Third finger here, possible to bend a tone (...)

but unusual, very unusual to bend that one, but its possible again

thats the root note again we are not gonna do anything bending with the root note

and here we are

this note, the third string 17th fret with the third finger,

this is the note C again, which we know as a good one for curling

so that one's a good one for a curl

also a good one for a tone bend

So that one there is a nice one for a bend

Now, if we keep going,

we've got here the 1st finger now at the 15th fret.

Now the blue note,

is just one semitone higher than that.

So this one can be a nice one

to get a little semitone bend with the 1st finger.

So that's not bad.

We end up here now,

with the 3rd finger on the note 'E'.

Now, this one, if you gonna bend this one

this has to be a minor 3rd sound.

So, bending this ... (plays)

Quite a big bend.

But it can be quite a nice one to go ... (plays)

That kind of thing.

So, bending that up a tone and a half ... (plays)

We done a blues scale there,

we're gonna go through some of that,

in the lick stuff soon.

So, that one's a nice one to bend,

if you wanna at a tone and a half.

This one here,

with the 1st finger 15th fret,

not really gonna bend that one too much,

'cause if you miss your bend a little bit,

you'll get to the major 7th,

that note there,

which is a really horrible one.

Goes to the root,

it's not a bad one to bend from other places,

but with your 1st finger it can be a little bit tricky.

With the 3rd finger we're back on the root note,

so, we're probably not gonna bend with that one either.

So, summary.

Curl here on the 3rd.

We have a semitone and a tone there.

Tone there if you want.

Tone there.

Semitone.

Here.

Add a 3rd.

And here, probably not.

Finish.

So here we go for looking at the blues scale.

Now, the blue note in position 5,

is located... here.

This is the 18th fret on the 5th string.

So for that note,

you could even slide your 3rd finger forward,

or you could use your little finger.

I tend to not use my little finger,

just 'cause it's so short

and feels pretty uncomfortable up this far on the neck.

Of course you can bend to it as well.

Now, that same note is also found at the 11th fret,

of the 4th string.

So, (plays)

you can do that nice little slide back.

Nice way of using that one with a little slide back.

Now that next place it's found...

here, which is the 16th fret of the 2nd string.

Very conveniently placed

between the 1st and 3rd finger.

Not so nice for the licks.

Really really handy little place, that one.

Lots of times that you're gonna use that one.

So, check out that chart again.

Notice where those blue notes are.

We're gonna go through some licks in the next lesson.