Learning to Rock with Pentatonics pt 2

Learning to Rock with Pentatonics pt 2 by Scott Allen

Licks

Next up let’s try some licks to get your phrasing happening. Here we will be incorporating bending and vibrato. The two bends you will need are the whole step bend, and the half step bend. A whole step means that you are bending the note up so that it is equal to a note two frets higher. A half step is one fret higher. Vibrato is usually thought of as rocking a note back and forth, but a better way to think of it is as a series of short bends that go an equal distance away from and back to the original pitch. It is extremely important to use your wrist when doing vibrato, and not your fingers.

B.B King Lick-

This is a neat little lick in the style of B.B. King. It is surprisingly versatile for both rock and blues.

Eric Clapton Lick-

This is a slightly more complicated lick that slowhand might use. This on is a terrific all purpose lick, equally adept at blues, Funk, Rock, Pop, Metal. This one does it all.

Slide Up lick-

Up until now all the licks that we have covered used only one pattern. This one uses three. Take note of how you get from one pattern to the next, as it will be very easy to come up with cool variations with some experimentation.