Essentials Part 3

How To Bend

Bends can be an extremely challenging technique for most beginners but once you get them, they can bring your lead playing to life! Firstly, let’s talk about how to perform the bands:

1. Use your third finger to start with, place it on the note (7th fret G string)
2. Positon you 1st & 2nd fingers on the same string behind your 3rd finger
3. Pick the note to make sure it is sounding properly
4. Whilst keeping the note sounding push the string up with all 3 fingers We will be looking at the tab for the exercise below, but it is important to know the symbols for hammer-ons and pull-offs when reading tab. They look like this:

We are currently learning a full bend, half bend and quarter bend, each of which are pictured above. With a full bend, (indicated by the number '1') we bend the note up a whole tone (2 frets), a half bend (indicated by the fraction '1/2') we bend the note up a semitone (1 fret) and with a quarter bend (indicated by the fraction '1/4'), we nudge the note up a little bit before stopping it dead.

Mega Linking Patterns

We have gone through 2 linking patterns, one which uses shape 1 - 3, and a second which uses shape 3 - 5. In this lesson, we are taking those two patterns and joining them to form one epic linking pattern! This will seriously help with your fluency across the neck and will become an important part of your improvising. The exercise starts in the key of A minor, then moves into the key of C minor. Spend extra time as you go through making sure you can visualise the shapes.

"ZZ Solo" Part 1

This solo will not only test your knowledge of the pentatonic shapes in 2 keys, but it will also test your speed, accuracy and feel on the guitar! To start with, the solo is in the key of A minor, followed by a switch to C minor halfway through. In this first video, we look through the first and second lick which use the first two shapes of the A minor pentatonic scale, as shown in the fretboard diagrams.

"ZZ Solo" Part 2

The next set of licks will move you across shapes 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the pentatonic scale, so prepare yourself for some jumping around! The shapes can be found in the fretboard diagrams.

"ZZ Solo" Part 3

The final set of licks initially start in A minor but then jump to C minor. This type of key change is common in rock music, but it does mean that you suddenly need to find the pentatonic shapes again! The shapes are all written out in the fretboard diagrams to help you out.