Latest / The Steve Stine Podcast / You Know the Pentatonic Scale. So Why Do Your Solos Still Sound Like Scales?

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You Know the Pentatonic Scale. So Why Do Your Solos Still Sound Like Scales? · The Steve Stine Podcast

• 1:10
  Steve: Same scale, same five notes, completely different result.
• 1:15
  Steve: And if you know your pentatonic scale, but every time you go to improvise, it sounds like you're just practicing the scale.
• 1:20
  Steve: The problem isn't that you need another scale.
• 1:23
  Steve: You need to change what you're doing with the notes that you already have.
• 1:26
  Steve: Now, this is something I see a lot with guitar players, is that they learn a position on the scale on the guitar, excuse me, of pentatonic, for instance, and then they practice with a metronome and work it up and all those sorts of things, which is great.
• 1:37
  Steve: We need to be able to do that.
• 1:39
  Steve: But when it comes time to actually start jamming with backing tracks, we can't just play from a fundamental practicing perspective.
• 1:45
  Steve: We actually have to start tapping into something that's a bit more creative.
• 1:49
  Steve: And that's what I want to talk to you about today.
• 1:51
  Steve: All right, so the first thing I want to discuss with you is that you need to stop thinking about starting with notes.
• 1:56
  Steve: And I want you to start thinking about starting with rhythm.
• 1:59
  Steve: This is very important.
• 2:01
  Steve: We need to learn to tap into the groove of the song and then separate ourselves from simply playing the scale up and down over and over and over, and actually start learning how to move in me, what I call meandering.
• 2:14
  Steve: So let me show you something.
• 2:15
  Steve: I'm gonna take this backing track here.
• 2:17
  Steve: And the first thing I want you to think about, the reason I've chosen this and I use this track a lot, um, I'll give you a link to this, is that this thing's in the key of A minor, so it's in a pretty common key for most people.
• 2:27
  Steve: It's at 80 beats per minute, which is pretty slow.
• 2:31
  Steve: The first thing that people do incorrectly is that they're always just trying to find different random backing tracks and expect that the result is going to be the same for every one of those.
• 2:39
  Steve: And it's not true.
• 2:40
  Steve: You need to find something that's already comfortable for you.
• 2:43
  Steve: You know, maybe you know this position or two positions or something on the guitar in that particular key, and that's important.
• 2:49
  Steve: You want to work in your comfort zone because what we're actually trying to work on here isn't just scales and positions and how well we know the fretboard, which is great stuff.
• 2:58
  Steve: It's trying to become more musical.
• 3:00
  Steve: So find somewhere on the guitar that feels pretty comfortable.
• 3:03
  Steve: For most people, it's probably the first position.
• 3:05
  Steve: Okay.
• 3:06
  Steve: Then what we're gonna do is we're gonna move in there, we're gonna start thinking about groove.
• 3:10
  Steve: So let me play you just a little bit of this track.
• 3:15
  Steve: Okay, now one, two, three, four.
• 3:20
  Steve: One, two, let's call those our quarter notes.
• 3:23
  Steve: One, two, three, four.
• 3:26
  Steve: Now, if I was to solo just using quarter notes, it would be okay, but I'm missing energy.
• 3:43
  Steve: So, what I always suggest to people is what you want to do is try and find a backing track where you can play eighth notes, which are twice as fast as the quarter notes.
• 3:52
  Steve: Okay, this is why this is a great track to try if you're new to this, because it's not fast.
• 3:57
  Steve: It's a nice slow track.
• 3:58
  Steve: So eighth notes would be like this.
• 4:02
  Steve: Here's our quarter notes.
• 4:03
  Steve: Here's our eighth notes.
• 4:07
  Steve: So they are faster.
• 4:09
  Steve: Now, if I need to figure out whether or not I can do this, the first thing I could do is just test the waters by trying to practice my pentatonic scale with this track, like this.
• 4:31
  Steve: Right?
• 4:32
  Steve: Just practice up and down, whatever.
• 4:34
  Steve: How comfortable are you at 80 beats per minute playing two per click or eighth notes?
• 4:40
  Steve: Okay.
• 4:41
  Steve: And if you're pretty comfortable with that, this is a good track.
• 4:43
  Steve: You might be able to do much faster than that, which is great, but at least you know you can do this.
• 4:49
  Steve: Okay.
• 4:50
  Steve: So the first thing we do is we start thinking about how we can connect to the music with the groove.
• 4:57
  Steve: And the one thing I always try and get people to understand is it doesn't start with your fingers.
• 5:01
  Steve: It doesn't start with your your your um position on the guitar.
• 5:04
  Steve: It starts with your brain.
• 5:06
  Steve: You have to learn how to what we'll call scat singing.
• 5:09
  Steve: You have to learn how to scat sing to the music.
• 5:12
  Steve: So if you think about this track, it's however many minutes this thing is.
• 5:17
  Steve: How long is this?
• 5:19
  Steve: Eight minutes and 13 seconds, I think it says.
• 5:21
  Steve: So it's eight minutes and 13 seconds of unlimited eighth notes for that amount of time.
• 5:27
  Steve: Bump bump bump bum.
• 5:28
  Steve: And what we're gonna do is we're gonna grab some eighth notes and we're gonna leave some eighth notes behind.
• 5:34
  Steve: Now, if we grab the same eighth notes every time, we'll create patterns.
• 5:38
  Steve: So let me show you what I mean.
• 5:40
  Steve: Just scat singing here.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Two, three, four.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_00: Bum bum bum bum bum.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Bum bum bum bum bum.
• 5:55
  Steve: Those would all be the same size, and that's okay.
• 5:57
  Steve: That's a place we could start.
• 6:08
  Steve: Okay, but let's try and make some different sizes, like this.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: If we started thinking about going bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_00: Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum.
• 6:30
  Steve: So in order to do that, I have to be okay with the fact that I'm going to be making different which means I'm starting and stopping in different places.
• 6:37
  Steve: I'm not always starting on what we'll call the downbeat.
• 6:41
  Steve: Bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump.
• 6:46
  Steve: I can start in between too, right?
• 6:48
  Steve: Because those are eighth notes.
• 6:49
  Steve: So I can start on these.
• 6:53
  Steve: Dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun dun so I can start on the down beat and I can start on the off beat, but I have to get comfortable with that in my brain for my fingers to be able to do this.
• 7:08
  Steve: So part of the thing about learning how to improvise is understanding that we can start and stop on different beats.
• 7:16
  Steve: We can create different sized phrases, right?
• 7:20
  Steve: We can make small phrases that are only one or two or three or four or whatever.
• 7:24
  Steve: We can it doesn't have to just be bum bomb bomb bomb bomb bom bom bom bom bom the entire time.
• 7:30
  Steve: The point is, is the way to create a phrase is you stop playing bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump bump right?
• 7:43
  Steve: Those are the kind of things.
• 7:43
  Steve: So you're not thinking so much about the notes that you're playing, you're thinking about the rhythms that you're playing, you're thinking about the groove.
• 7:50
  Steve: So as the music starts.
• 8:14
  Steve: And I can choose to play different notes every time, to play the same note every time, to play a group of two or three notes.
• 8:22
  Steve: Again, you have to explore this and you have to get used to it.
• 8:26
  Steve: But it's not just constantly going all the way through the scale and coming all the way back, it's learning how to move back and forth.
• 8:32
  Steve: That's how you create repetition.
• 8:34
  Steve: Okay?
• 8:35
  Steve: So you just start basically training yourself how to how to move around with different kinds of phrases or starting and stopping points.
• 8:45
  Steve: Okay.
• 8:45
  Steve: And a great place to do this is with eighth notes, especially with this track, because it's not too fast.
• 8:51
  Steve: You don't have to play all the time.
• 8:53
  Steve: That's the whole point.
• 8:54
  Steve: Even if you bump, bump, bump, or you can play the same note or two notes.
• 9:03
  Steve: Right?
• 9:03
  Steve: You don't have to feel like you have to move all the time.
• 9:06
  Steve: But when you stop playing, it's really important because then the listener and you are allowed to hear that there's a pause point there.
• 9:13
  Steve: You said something and now you've stopped talking.
• 9:16
  Steve: And now you're gonna say something else, and you're gonna stop talking.
• 9:20
  Steve: You see, so it's very important.
• 9:22
  Steve: Now, the next thing I want to talk to you about, and then I'll let you go from this, is just understanding that there is a level above the eighth note or two per click, which is 16th note, which would be twice as fast as that.
• 9:33
  Steve: Four per click.
• 9:35
  Steve: Now, sixteenth notes aren't always easy for people to play, and it's okay if you can't do this, but I want to show you.
• 9:40
  Steve: I'm just gonna test it again.
• 9:41
  Steve: So I'm gonna go back.
• 9:44
  Steve: Here's my eighth note.
• 9:49
  Steve: Here's my sixteent note.
• 9:59
  Steve: Okay?
• 10:00
  Steve: Now, for some people, that 16th note is just not possible.
• 10:02
  Steve: It's just too fast, and that's okay.
• 10:05
  Steve: But what you can do is you can just dip your toes in the water with 16th notes when you feel like you need them.
• 10:12
  Steve: You're not obligated, but when you feel like you need them, what you can do is simply do a pull-off or a hammer on in different places.
• 10:19
  Steve: Let me show you how to do that.
• 10:20
  Steve: So we did something like this.
• 10:24
  Steve: Here's my eighth notes.
• 10:31
  Steve: Here's a 16th.
• 10:37
  Steve: Here it is again.
• 10:41
  Steve: Or is a hammer on.
• 10:44
  Steve: So I could do something like this.
• 11:06
  Steve: Pause that.
• 11:07
  Steve: There we go.
• 11:08
  Steve: So notice how as I start learning to phrase better, I start thinking about that scatsing.
• 11:15
  Steve: So my fingers aren't trying to do the work.
• 11:17
  Steve: My brain is thinking about the phrases, and my fingers are responding.
• 11:22
  Steve: And I'm learning how to create different size phrases.
• 11:25
  Steve: I'm also learning that I can create repetition.
• 11:28
  Steve: One note, once, twice, three times, four times, whatever.
• 11:31
  Steve: Two notes back and forth.
• 11:33
  Steve: Dun dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, right.
• 11:38
  Steve: There's lots of different things that we can do.
• 11:39
  Steve: There's lots of options in here.
• 11:42
  Steve: The more comfortable you get with actually practicing, the easier this is going to become.
• 11:46
  Steve: Then the other thing is that you've got this next level, right?
• 11:50
  Steve: Dipping your toes into the 16th note by just doing a simple pull-off or a simple hammer on.
• 11:54
  Steve: Ba da dum bum bump bum bump bum bump bump bada bum bump bum.
• 12:01
  Steve: And you can start creating some really great stuff.
• 12:03
  Steve: You don't need to use your whole position at the in the beginning when you're starting to do this.
• 12:07
  Steve: You might just use a a couple of strings just to start getting comfortable with this.
• 12:12
  Steve: Last thing I want to tell you about this is you've got to spend time in this environment.
• 12:16
  Steve: You can't just practice scales and exercises and alternate picking and all those things and never spend time over here.
• 12:23
  Steve: And then when you put on a backing track, you just expect it to work.
• 12:26
  Steve: You have to practice doing this.
• 12:28
  Steve: You have to practice playing in the creative space.
• 12:32
  Steve: So you need to make sure that if this is something that you're interested in, it becomes part of your regular routine of practice.
• 12:38
  Steve: Always remind yourself the scale itself, the pentatonic scale, isn't supposed to be your solo.
• 12:43
  Steve: It's supposed to provide you with the notes that you need to create the solo.
• 12:47
  Steve: That's what scales do.
• 12:48
  Steve: So it's not a matter of just learning more and more scales all the time, it's learning how to utilize them.
• 12:53
  Steve: Now, if you struggle with those sort of things, if you've learned scales and you've learned licks and you know, you've watched a bunch of different guitar videos, and you still have a problem figuring out how to connect all of this into actual playing, that's a huge part of what we do inside the Guitar Zoom Academy.
• 13:09
  Steve: Because most guitar players don't need thousands more scales and things to learn.
• 13:13
  Steve: They need clarity.
• 13:14
  Steve: They need to know what they're working on and how things work so they can apply them.
• 13:19
  Steve: So if you'd like some building, you know, blocks of how these things work, if you need this kind of thing, all you have to do is reach out and you can learn more about the Guitar Zoom Academy over at guitarzoom.com.
• 13:29
  Steve: All right.
• 13:29
  Steve: So stay positive and keep practicing.