Unit 1: Uncomfortably Sensitive

"Uncomfortably Sensitive"

This cool solo is inspired by "Comfortably Numb"-era Gilmour. It includes a lot of Gilmour's signature sounds, such as the two tone bends, pentatonic runs and usage of minor scale notes. We will be breaking the solo down in detail over the next four lessons, so be sure to listen to the whole thing a few times before moving on!

Lick 1-3: Gilmour Bends

Let's go over the first three licks in the tab, which highlight how David Gilmour approaches bends. We are in the key of B minor and for these first three licks, we are using pentatonic shapes 1 and 2. The pentatonic shapes can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

Minor Scale

Lick 4: Using The Minor Scale

As we progress to lick 4 of the solo, we start to see the usage of minor scale notes rather than just the pentatonic scale. It is crucial you know how the minor scale relates to the minor pentatonic, which is something we cover in great detail in our intermediate lead course. For this lick, we are using pentatonic shapes 1 and 5, with minor scale notes on top! Remember that the Bm pentatonic scale has five notes (B, D, E, F#, A), whilst the full Bm scale has seven (B, C#, D, E, F#, G, A); all you are doing is adding C# and G to the scale! The shapes can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

Lick 5: Blues Scale Run

Lick 5 is the most challenging in the solo, it is quick and quite complicated! Essentially, it's a blues scale run using the B blues scale. The run ends on the B root note of the A string, which is where pentatonic shape 4 sits in this key. The shapes can be found in the fretboard diagrams to illustrate this more clearly.

Lick 6: Rhythmical Double Stops

Lick 6 takes us to another classic Gilmour sound, where we double up the notes of the pentatonic scale and add in a repetitive rhythmical phrase, to create an awesome sound. In terms of scales, we are back in pentatonic shape 1 in Bm, as shown in the fretboard diagrams.

Lick 7-9: Visualising Scales

For the final three licks of the song, we need to be able to clearly visualise both the pentatonic and full-scale shapes. We are essentially starting in shape 1, but a full octave up from the 7th fret shape. We then gradually move down to shape 4, based around the 14th fret. The shapes for the final two licks can be found in the fretboard diagrams.