5 Amazing Ways To Upgrade Your Pentatonic Licks

[Music]
all right
[Music]
okay

The 5 Positions

Pentatonic scales we all love them we all use them all the time. I’m gonna show you a few tips that will completely transform the way you approach them, and I’m gonna do that starting now. Five minutes from now. Here we go, five minutes timer.
If I succeed, make sure to subscribe and like this video anyway. So here we go. First of all, you gotta know all the five positions. So here it is from the root.
Here it is from the third.
right
And from the third coming up
Notice there’s always two notes per string, right? It’s very basic stuff you might know this but hang on there’s more
[Music]
right these are very basic stuff right

Changing the Notes

But you can start changing the amount of notes you put on each string. So instead of having two notes per string, why not try making three notes, one note, three notes, one note, three notes? Why not? You get this
And then make sure that you can do that with each position. So if you want to do it from this position, you get three notes, one note, three notes, one note, three notes
Then you have it over here
And over here
right and
[Applause]
So this gives you a different kind of sound, and you can then just, you know, come up with all kinds of phrases like
[Music]
Different sound, right? Or you can start connecting the positions together, that kind of stuff. So that’s cool. Check that out. Make sure to go deeper into these kinds of stuff.

Chromatic Notes

Another thing that you can do is add a chromatic note between the four and the five. Also very basic stuff, and then you have a what’s called a blues scale, which means basically adding a chromatic
right after the fourth degree in this case d
[Music]
Now many know this, but did you really go systematically and work on knowing that in each position? So you have it over here
right
And also have it over here
[Music]
And you also have it or have it over here
[Music]
And over here
[Music]
So make sure you can add notes when you add a chromatic note. See it in all five positions. How much time I have left? Two

Melodic Minor Dorian

More minutes, something like that. So here’s another tip.
Start dealing with going into different modes. I mean basically we’re talking about a minor mode, right? So
How about melodic minor or dorian? Let’s go with dorian first. Dorian means basically, if you look at it as what are you adding to your pentatonic? You’re adding a second degree
And you’re also adding a six
So you get this scale
One, two, flat three, four, five, six, seven
And you can see that
[Music]
And you get this kind of
[Music]
This kind of sound which is
[Music]
This kind of sound which is really cool and jazzy, right? Another thing you can do is do the same thing with the melodic minor. So you’re basically instead of having
A flat seven
You have a major seven. So you’ve got one, two, flat three, four, five, natural six, and major seven. And then you get this kind of sound
[Music]
So again
[Music]
You know, so I’ve been playing this scale for a while so I got some feel for it, you know, some movements that I’ve been practicing variations. Okay, we’ve got 40 more seconds

Chromatic Enclosure

Um, okay, play with chromatics. And then also I’m going to talk about another thing. So only 30 more seconds left. Okay, so let’s say I have this
This note in the pentatonic, it’s the flat three, right? I can do a chromatic enclosure into that note
Instead of just playing it
Oh my god, I have 10 seconds. Hey, let’s add another minute. Okay, I think we’re enjoying here
So I’m gonna close the timer
Yes, I’m cheating, I know
But still please hit the like button and subscribe. Okay, do it right now. Actually, over 70 percent of people watching are not subscribed, so please make sure to subscribe and let’s grow this channel.

Melodic Shells

So here’s the flat three, and I make sure to surround it
With an enclosure. I can also do that to the root
Or the fifth
Or the third
[Music]
So that’s playing around with chromatics which gives you, you know, this kind of sound
[Music]
This kind of sound

Outro

Okay, another thing that you can do is something really cool, which is just
Basically moving up and down half steps to create kind of like melodic shells that are sounding like out sounding. I’ll give you an example
That’s in
But a half step will be
So it’s still, you know, I’m still playing from the same shape but I mean a flat now, so I got
[Music]
And then I can come back
And I can also do that with a half step above
So I’m still just playing with this pentatonic box but I’m creating all these kinds of
You know, call and response between playing it up a half step, playing it in a
Playing it down a half step. And obviously, this is a concept you can apply with any phrase
You’re doing in any position, right? So you can take the, you know, some other position, maybe this position
And go up a half step

Now that was a handful. Right now, if you’re really looking for a step-by-step approach into the fundamental elements—scales, chords, voice leading, chord progressions, creativity, how to mix and match everything—and you really want, you know, the guidance and resources, check out my Galactic Online Modern Guitar Program. It has over 15 modules, over 105 videos including exercises, explanations, PDFs, tabs, basically everything. Okay, just check it out. Also, guys, please make sure to like this video and subscribe. Subscribe, it really helps. And also, I don’t want you to miss any videos, so make sure to hit that bell notification. Other than that, in the comments below, if you have any ideas for future videos or recommendations or just want to talk about the materials that I presented in this video, let’s talk. I’m here and I would love to have a chat with you in the comments below. That’s it, guys. Have a beautiful week and yeah, enjoy music. I’ll see you later. Bye