Pentatonic Variations

Richard Barrett investigates new ways to play our favourite scale with 10 fully transcribed bespoke examples and fantastic backing tracks.

- Richard Barrett

We’ve all been there – your turn comes to show what you’re made of and you come away feeling there is a level of improvisation that still eludes you; that you’re trapped inside the ‘box’ Pentatonic shapes. Before we go any further, I should point out that this isn’t in itself a terrible thing. Many classic – even iconic – guitar solos have been created within this relatively limited framework. However, this is no reason to rest on one’s laurels – after all, is there a guitarist out there who doesn’t want to up their game in one way or another?

The concept of this feature is to point out some of the altered patterns that are available to the player who wants to expand their Pentatonic ‘comfort zone’, rather than enter a twilight world of unfamiliar scales and start again from scratch.