Pentatonic & Diatonic Scale 3 String Rotation Sequence Lick On Guitar

This is the Pentatonic & Diatonic 3 String Rotation Sequence Lick On Guitar. This lick is done on the high 3 strings with a combination of pentatonic and diatonic scales that add in the half steps on the descend of the sequence. One is on the open note position and the other is on the 2nd Octave 12th fret position. A rotation lick forces you to focus in without stopping.  Notice in the tablature all picking is continuous up and down alternate picking. When learning new things there is an old saying you got to crawl and stagger before you can walk and walk before you run. Work slow until until you are fluid relaxed without mistakes. Practice with a Metronome in a slow tempo building faster to know your speed limits. The TAB is in 4/4,  4 beat per measure in Quadruplets 16th notes. The count (1 – e an da), (2 – e an da), (3 – e an da), (4 – e an da). You can also use your pinky with Finger / Fret Rule. I choose the modified fingering omitting the pinky. The descending diatonic half step part really has a Triplet Feel but can be done this way.

If you analyze pick and fret wear on a guitar of a professional performing musician who has put some years and effort in playing their instrument. Some dominant clues will come out of the physical mechanics. When we were young, we learned very fast by emulation modeling of others we looked up to. Especially when we were children.

I found some old picks I had from my early years of playing guitar. My picks were worn uneven proving I was picking more down strokes than up. I used to get blister on my arm from the square corner of my Les Paul and the wear marks on the guitar were there. I was using my whole arm to pick instead of my wrist. My fret wear was mostly on the 3^rd G String some on the 4^th D String on my guitar. Proving I had a habit of staying in the middle area of the fret board. The walking the plank metaphor saying in the middle to keep your balance. Whatever unconscious fear that comes from. With all these bad habits I was still pulling off playing Ok and sounding good.  I knew deep down there were some limiting factors that was keeping me from getting better. I could see it when all these great guitar players started coming out in the 1980s & 90s.

It happened to be my childhood friend who got me into playing guitar when we were kids, became a talent scout for guitar magazines and record producer who found all these great unknown guitar players. I’m not going to drop names, let’s just say Shrapnel.

These new great unknown guitar players were moving up fast in the guitar community. They were some of the ones who were doing VHS Instructional videos in the 1990’s. I was buying them off the shelf. They were showing their chop building exercises and licks that most guitar players had resistance to do or just never knew about it.

Before I could apply and learn any of this stuff. I had some bad habits to break that I described above. It’s sometimes harder to break a bad habit than learning from scratch. You must have the fire in the belly passion and desire to break through and do it. Alternate picking and using my wrist. Learning and practicing scales on all positions up the guitar neck. Learning all the scale shapes vertical, diagonal and horizontal until they are tattooed in your brain. Doing guitar sequence exercises with a metronome. Playing more on the 1^st & 2^nd String (B & E) with fast turnaround on the last note from ascending & descending. You apply all this until it becomes muscle memory and can be done with ease and feel.

Here is one last caveat about balance. I found a guitar school in the Bay Area.  They were former GIT teachers and graduates who made you play with a band. In a group setting the teachers broke you up into 3 groups. Technique & Theory, Learning the Songs & Chord Progression, Playing with the band who were pro studio musicians. The main teacher Vic, (who worked the live playing) dropped something that I wasn’t expecting and he was absolutely right. With all this chop building your doing you have an imbalance. Your speed is way up here and your melodic control is way down here (showing a gap with his hands). Kind of saying you need to do both play slow along with playing fast. He explained that a good solo start’s slow melody to hook the listener and then you can wonder off to your fast stuff and then it ends with that similar hook melody.

In all things don’t be a purist and head trip on anything. You always do what you love and feels good to you in the moment. For me I love the Blues with all the shuffle rhythm styles and licks. God bless Stevie Ray Vaughan & Jimi Hendrix, BB & Albert King, Muddy Waters and all those old greats. Learning & playing songs are your final product to getting out to perform to an audience.