Rick Graham - pentatonics. A really interesting take on a familiar topic

hubobulous

Even though he's a monster and most of what he plays is outside my ability, I love his approach and phrasing. For those of you that are bored of normal pentatonic usage and are looking for something a little more interesting to the ear, take a look at this:

http://view.ceros.com/lick-library/issue25/p/72

Just those few ideas are so simple, but they never really crossed my mind. I really love intervalic sounds where they are still melodic, but fool the listener by not giving away what comes next in the pattern. This is going to be an interesting column for me, and I think will work well at fast or slower speeds.

So as to keep some sort of direction to this thread, perhaps we can use it to discuss the above, but also intervalic ideas and different takes on the pentatonic scales?

JAYJO

Ive tried watching this twice but it keeps sticking unfortunately. It looks interesting 

monquixote

He doesn't really explain that final pattern with missing notes and it isn't in the tab. 

What note is he missing, is in the same interval or is it just a pattern?

carlos

Practice pentas in 3rds and 4ths for some cool sounds as well. See here - http://www.mattwarnockguitar.com/5-modern-jazz-guitar-pentatonic-scale-patterns

To take Rick's concept one step further, you can practice improvising on just 1 string, then 2 strings using pentatonics. Pretty soon you'll be flying all over the fretboard if you restrict yourself to 2 strings. For bonus points try using 2 strings without thinking about boxes, only sounds like Tim Miller suggests here (Rick is a fan of Tim too):

Once you can hear the E minor penta in your head then it's a piece of cake to do 1 nps or 3 nps or whatever.

hubobulous

@monquixote - its just a pattern I believe. Basically, he's started with the original pattern as follows:

• 2 notes on low E string
• 3 notes on the A string
• 1 note on the D string
• 3 notes on the G string
• 1 note on the B string
• 3 notes on the high E string

Then he's used that pattern, but omitted the 2nd, (middle), note on the A, G and high E strings.

sheraton52

Rick's way is almost identical to the way Gambale plays Pentatonics give or take the odd upstroke/downstroke.Bewildering.

hubobulous

I agree. I have tried the stuff that he posted, and the stretches alone make me cry, let alone the speed. But, its something I want to persevere with because I like the tonal effect.

I might try it with some tapping ideas too, since this is always my safety net when stretches cause too much hassle ;-)

musteatbrain

Frank Gambale explained almost the same patterns at a clinic in LIPA about 20 years ago. I have still not got round to stealing it! Hats off to Mr Graham on his playing, but more so on his physical transformation. It's hard to go from Jabba to Ripzilla in such a short time. He must have put in some monumental effort in the gym.

hubobulous

Yeah, his fitness transformation is truly impressive. I find going from ripzilla to jabba more straightforward

musteatbrain

And a hell of a lot more fun!