Exploring the Minor Pentatonic Scale – Non-Linear Sequences 1

Playbassnow.com proudly presents a lesson from our guest teacher: Adam Neely

 

Add to favorites

This is part of a intermediate/advanced series on getting the most out of the that trusty workhorse of contemporary improvisation, the minor pentatonic scale. Click here to check out the first lesson.

The second type of pattern we can explore falls under the catch-all title of “non-linear sequence.” Instead of taking consecutive pitches from the scale, we’ll look at other grouping of pitches to move up and down. The first grouping we’ll look at are diatonic 3rds.

Here’s the video of me showing what I mean by that.

Here’s a pdf showcasing some of the ideas I talk about in the video. You need to be a member of playbass.com to see it, so be sure and sign up!

You might notice that this list (and what I cover in the video) is hardly exhaustive as far as what rhythmic concepts are available to us for phrasing these patterns. Here are just some of the parameters we can control and mix/match…

* Pattern direction (ascending, descending)
* Note duration (sixteenth note, triplet, etc)
* Rests, and rest duration
* Repeating 1 or more (or all) notes
* Interpolating other rhythms (throwing in a sixteenth triplet in a sixteenth note pattern, for example
* Doubling note values
* Starting patterns on different syncopations
* etc, etc

You can imagine, there’s a lot to go through! My intention with this isn’t to be exhaustive, however, rather it’s to get you all thinking about new and interesting ways to use the pentatonic scale beyond the clichéd licks that you already might know.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me on YouTube PM. Happy sequencing!

-Adam