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Chapter 8: Playing Lead: Soaring Melodies and Searing Solos
143
Track 43
Shuffle (qr=qce)
sim.
Figure 8-4:
Alternate
picking with
notes on all
six strings.
T
A B
1 0
3 1 3 0
2 0
3 2 3 0
3 0
3 0
0 3
0 2 3
0 2 0
0 1 3 0 1 3
0 3
You can use either the tab or the standard music notation to play the notes in
Figure 8-4. You can even memorize the sequence of notes by ear if you listen
to the CD enough times. The point here isn’t to get you reading music but to
practice alternate picking. (But reading music is often an efficient way to
accomplish other musical goals.)
The Universal Lead Language:
The Pentatonic Scale
Many scales exist in music, including the two most popular: the seven-note
major scale (the familiar do re mi fa sol la ti do), and the seven-note minor
scale (the major scale’s mournful and mysterious counterpart). But many
other scales exist too, and each sounds a little different and performs different
melodic functions.
One common scale is the pentatonic scale, which consists of five notes drawn
from the members of the major or minor scale. Many melodies are written with
the pentatonic scale, especially folk songs in many cultures, because of the
scale’s open and gentle quality. “Amazing Grace” and “Auld Lang Syne” are two
examples of familiar songs that use the pentatonic scale for their melodies. The
pentatonic scale is simpler than the major or minor scale, but it has some
important uses that musicians from such cultures as Chinese, Japanese,
European, African, Polynesian, and Native American have put to good use.
The five black notes on a keyboard form a natural pentatonic scale. If you
play just the five black notes (G%, A%, B%, D%, and E%) on any keyboard, you produce
the G% pentatonic scale — without even trying very hard! Try it yourself:
Go to the nearest keyboard and play “Auld Lang Syne” and “Amazing Grace”
using just the black notes (and your ear, of course). Then improvise your own
melody.
TEAM LinG