February 9th, 2010 
admin There’s a great vibe in the room the band is pumping out a hot version of ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and the crowd is lovin’ it; everything is sounding sweet, it’s your chance for an outrageous guitar solo you step into the spotlight your favorite Fender Telecaster’s humming… what could possibly go wrong?
Midway through your solo you have a mental blank, how could you possibly forget that solo? Heck you must have played it at lest 5,000 times at home not to mention the endless band rehearsals!
But there you are… fingers frozen, it seems like a hour has passed since you played your last note and if you don’t recover immediately it could very well be the last note you ever play in this band.
Panic sets in… man, I wish I knew which scale to play, gee I don’t even know which key I’m playing in looks like this is the end for ‘old slippery fingers’.
Sound familiar?
As you read this article thousands of guitar players worldwide are learning solo after solo ‘parrot fashion’ from guitar TAB without knowing why the guitarist played the notes they played. They are learning WHAT they played without understanding WHY they played it!
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And it’s not just guitar TAB that’s the issue… just take a trip over to YouTube and we have the monkey-see-monkey-do version of how to learn guitar, yes it’s very entertaining but also incredibly confusing for the newbie player lots of smoke and mirrors stuff, tremendous ego building performances for the guys
’showing off’ on the videos, but very little information is being passed on to the viewer; ever notice how everything is played flat out?
If they really wanted to help you they would play s-l-o-w-l-y so you could learn something… anyway that’s another story back to our guitar playing hero.
If friend ‘old slippery fingers’ knew what key he/she was playing in they would have a 50/50 chance of surviving the ordeal, I say 50/50 because the next problem would be to make a decision whether to play a major or minor pentatonic scale.
Since most bands copy their arrangements directly from the recorded version I’d say that they were playing ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ in the key of G which was the original key.
The next obstacle to overcome is which scale to play… since ‘Sweet Home’ is stylistically a country-rock song I’d go for the major pentatonic.
The solution was simple for our friend if only he/she had taken the time to learn a bit more about the music they were presenting to the public.
Answer: Sweet Home Alabama = G major pentatonic
I guess we had better learn that scale in case we get ourselves in a tight squeeze.
The notes in the G major pentatonic scale are…
G – A – B – D – E [G]
Keynotes indicated as [ ]
G Major pentatonic scale pattern
—————————
—————————
—————————
———————-[5]–
————–5—7——–
-[3]–5—7—————-
The same scale one octave higher would be played like this:
—————————–
————————[8]–
—————-7—9——–
–[5]—7—9—————-
—————————–
—————————–
It’s a great idea to say the name of each note as you play them on the guitar, that way you get to know the fretboard better and learn the notes of the pentatonic scale at the same time.
Application:
Here’s a typical major pentatonic chord progression, try recording these chords and practice the G major pentatonic scale over the pre-recorded progression.
Major pentatonic progression…
G /// G /// G /// G///
C /// C /// G /// G ///
D /// C /// G /// G ///
Pay close attention to how each note sounds, try playing the same note repeatedly and listen to how the note feels against the different chords.
Now it’s time to get to work practicing the G major pentatonic scale and as always…go use this stuff on the guitar.
And now I’d like to invite you to get free access to my “How To Remember 1,000 Songs” eCourse. You can download the course for free at: http://www.guitarcoaching.com
You’ll learn about hit song templates, easy chords, simple scales, red hot rhythms, and successful practice strategies in text, audio and video.
From Mike Hayes – The Guitar Coaching Guy & the Express Guitar System
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