The Anti Pentatonic Method: Break Out of the Box in Three Levels

If you've been playing the guitar for years or even decades and you still lack confidence when you go to take a blues solo, today's lesson is for you. This is the method I've used on Grammy nominated recordings and taught to thousands of students.

The first thing to get out of your head: if the pentatonic blues scale is all you know, you are limiting yourself. You'll be stuck in that box forever. So put that notion away. We're not starting with the scale at all. We're starting with chords.

Level one: the three chords

We're in the key of E today, and when you really break it down, an E blues is only three chords. E, A, and B.

For each chord, learn three positions on the neck. You probably already know the open E and the little E power chord shape. The third one is that C shape with your pinky on the root. Play it nice and slow. Then apply the same three positions to A and to B.

That's level one. It's not flashy, but it's the foundation everything else sits on.

Level two: flirting with the third

Level two is what I call flirting with the third. If you don't know what a third is, all good. In each of these chord shapes, it's sitting right under one of your fingers.

All you're going to do is mess around with that note. Go just below it, come back to it, slide into it, and land on the chord. On its own it doesn't sound like much. But add a little musical flair and you can traverse the entire neck by copy and pasting the idea through E, A, and B, in every shape.

Take a slow blues and combine those ideas and you've already got an amazing sounding solo that never touches the pentatonic box. You've stopped noodling by construction, because everything you play is anchored to a chord.

Level three: the walk down

Here's the party trick. Take your flirt with the third idea and walk it down a whole step.

That move sounds so great, especially when you're heading to the next chord. Play your idea over the E, walk it down as the A arrives, and you've just outlined the chord change like a pro. Then do the same thing coming back home.

Bonus: move with the changes

If you want to go over the hump and really smash that self doubt, stop staying in one key for the whole form. Staying parked in one pentatonic box for the entire cycle of the blues is what amateurs do.

What pros do, and what gives their playing that glossy sheen, is move with the chord changes. Play your blues scale idea over the E. When the A comes, copy and paste the same shape up to A. When the B comes, same thing. Mix in the major and minor sounds as you go.

That's the anti pentatonic method. You've probably been playing for years and nobody ever showed you this. Now you know.

The one note that supercharges all of this is the major third. Read the secret third key next.

Watch the original video: The Anti Pentatonic Guitar Technique That Changed My Life

Want to go deeper?

Grab the free Blues Bootcamp. It walks through these concepts with tabs, downloadable PDFs, backing tracks, and a jam with me section.

And if you're done with random videos and want the full system for mixing major and minor like the pros, check out The Blues Guitar System, my full course.