Brewtality - 01/2002

By Zakk Wylde

The Basics of Pentatonic Hardcore - Part 1

The Five Minor-Pentatonic Scale Patterns Every Guitarist Should Know Whats happening! This is Zakk Wylde. Welcome to the first installment of my new Guitar World column. I dont mind admitting that Im pretty psyched to be doing this. Im gonna be dedicating this space to the seemingly lost art of playing lead. When I first picked up the guitar, it had nothing to do with being famous or makin cash; it just had to do with how good I could get on the instrumentand it still does! Hell, nobody knows who the hell I am and Im broke! When I started hearing players like Jimi Hen drix, Eddie Van Halen, Randy Rhoads, Tony Iommi, Frank Marino and Al Di Meola, it absolutely inspired me to want to practice 24/7. Even to this day, when I get off the road with Black Label Society or Ozzy, Ill still sit in my music room and jam along to records by those guys. No matter how much you know, theres always another riff to write or another lick to learn. So, lets get started. Over the next six months or so were gonna be going over a bunch of stuff regarding lead playing major and minor pentatonic scales, diatonic scales, making use of the whole neck, how to mix up scales so they dont sound like scales, adding chromatics and the flatted fifth to runs and licks, vibrato, string bending; double bends, alternate picking, picking patterns, pick harmonics, chicken pickin, pedal steel licks and other countrified stuff. Also, Im gonna draw a detailed diagram of my rig for all the beginner players, because when I started out I always thought it was way more complicated than what it really is. To kick things off, lets start with some basics by looking at the minor pentatonic scale and how it covers the whole neck. To keep things simple, well stay in the key of A minor for now. Later on, well learn how to transpose what we learn into any key, which, as youll soon find out, is a real easy thing to do. What Im gonna show you this month are the five different ways you can play the A-minor pentatonic scale (A C D E G) in different

places on the fretboard. These five shapes are pretty important to know because, as youre about to find out, they cover the whole neck! Because of this, they form the basic framework on which well start building kick -ass runs and licks over the next few columns. Were gonna be using all four of our left-hand (fretboard) fingers, and well number them 1, 2, 3 and 4 (index, middle, ring and pinkie, respectively). These numbers are gonna appear below each scale so you know exactly what finger to use on each note. Were also gonna be using alternate picking, which just means you pick down, up, down, up and so on. The picking strokes are clearly marked above each scale pattern so you know exactly what you are supposed to do. FIGURE 1 shows the first pentatonic scale pattern. Play it through a couple of times to get used to how it feels and sounds, then move up the neck to the next pattern, which is shown in FIGURE 2. When youve gotten that one under your fingers, play the next three patterns (FIGURES 35) in the same way. Once you get up to pattern 5 (FIGURE 5) youre done, because when you move up to the next pentatonic pattern (FIGURE 6) you end up with the first pattern, but an octave (12 frets) higher. Compare FIGURE 1 and FIGURE 6 and youll see and hear exactly what I mean.

Figure 1 MP3

Figure 2 MP3

Figure 3 MP3

Figure 4 MP3

Figure 5 MP3

Figure 6 MP3

Keep going through these patterns until you can play through them pretty fast and with total confidence. I know this isnt the most exciting stuff to practice, but stick with it because it forms the basic framework we need to start ripping out some brewtal leads. See you next issue, brother. P.S. If you want to hear some ass-kicking guitar playing, check out these CDs: Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush Live, Al Di Meola Elegant Gypsy, Dixie Dregs Dregs of the Earth.