Cool Pentatonic Lead Guitar Licks To Play In Guitar Solos

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If you want to learn cool pentatonic guitar licks that sound great in any rock and blues guitar context…
… this lead guitar soloing article shows you how.
First...
I'll teach you simple pentatonic lead guitar licks that are fun to play…
… don't take a lot of time to learn…
… and make any guitar solo you play sound more pro.
Next...
... I'll show you several more advanced ways to spice up the plain-old pentatonic scale.
And in the process, you'll learn how to create a lot more pentatonic lead guitar licks of your own.
(Even if you're not an advanced guitar player yet.)

EMAIL TO GET ACCESS
By submitting your info, you agree to send it to Tom Hess Music Corporation who will process and use it according to their privacy policy.
To begin…
Watch this pentatonic lead guitar lick video and practice along with me as I show you fun guitar licks that make you a better lead guitar player:
Now that you know the basics, let's go deeper.
Here are 5 more advanced lead guitar soloing tips that help you get more out of the pentatonic scale:
Pentatonic Lead Guitar Lick Playing Tip #1: Learn All 5 Pentatonic Scale Shapes
To truly be free when you play lead guitar and have an easy time creating pentatonic lead guitar licks, you have to know all 5 shapes of the pentatonic scale all over the guitar.
Why 5?
Because the pentatonic scale has 5 notes. (Example: A minor pentatonic has notes A C D E G… and then we start over again on A one octave higher.)
So, if you want to know the pentatonic scale all over the guitar (and be able to play pentatonic lead guitar licks fluently in your guitar solos)…
You need to know all 5.
Fortunately, once you learn all 5 patterns of the pentatonic scale in one key… you'll easily be able to play them in any key (because the pentatonic scale patterns themselves don't change from key to key).
Follow this process to memorize the pentatonic scale shapes:
Step 1: Choose a key. (For example: D minor).
Step 2: Write out the notes of the scale (e.g. D F G A C)
Step 3: Play the pentatonic scale starting from each of these notes: 1 (D), b3 (F), 4 (G), 5 (A), and b7 (C). This will allow you to work out the 5 shapes of the pentatonic scale.
Step 4: Practice memorizing all 5 shapes. Pro tip: you can memorize them a lot faster if you practice memorizing them away from the guitar in addition to doing so with the guitar.
How to memorize the shapes away from the guitar?
Simply take your fretting hand and put it on your picking hand's forearm and treat it like a fretboard.
Move the fingers up and down the forearm to run through the 5 shapes of the pentatonic scale.
Do this many times throughout the day to give yourself more opportunities to memorize the pentatonic scale shapes.
Question: Tom Hess, what is the difference between the major pentatonic scale and the minor pentatonic scale when playing lead guitar?
Answer: The minor pentatonic and the major pentatonic scales are related in the same way as the major and minor scales are related. The major pentatonic scale is the major scale with the 4th and 7th notes removed. And the minor pentatonic scale is the natural minor scale with the 2nd and b6 removed.
The difference in the sound is determined by the chords you are playing over, not by the pentatonic scales themselves.
And the process for creating guitar licks is exactly the same whether you are playing guitar licks and guitar solos in the minor pentatonic scale or the major pentatonic scale.
Watch this video to see more cool pentatonic scale guitar licks:
Something else:
As you practice memorizing the pentatonic scale patterns, don't underestimate just how deeply you ought to know them.
For example:
Let me ask you 3 “simple” questions about your knowledge of scales.
Hint: these are all TRICK questions.
The “obvious” answers that come to your mind instantly will almost certainly be wrong.

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Here are the questions:
1. When I say the words: “A minor pentatonic” – what position (fret) on your guitar do you immediately think of?
2. When I say: “play a scale starting from the root” – which string do you imagine yourself starting on?
3. When I say: “play a scale up and down” – how many strings do you see yourself playing on?
So... what were your answers?
Did you answer: “fret 5”, “6th string” and “all 6 strings”?
If so, you are... BZZT - Wrong!
Here is the thing:
When you truly master a scale on guitar, you can’t give just “1 answer” to questions like these.
That’s because, when you master a scale, you stop thinking about “scale shapes” or “positions”.
“A minor pentatonic” doesn't mean “5th fret” to you anymore.
Instead, you see your entire fretboard in your mind with all the notes of the A minor pentatonic scale. Just like a piano player sees all the notes of a scale on his keyboard – not “shapes” or patterns.
“Starting from the root” doesn't mean “6th string” to you anymore.
Because you can just as easily find the root on any string as you can find a raisin on a coconut cake. (That means: do it without thinking, hesitating or fumbling around.)
And “up and down” doesn't mean “play on all strings” anymore.
You feel just as comfortable playing scales on 1 string, 2 strings, or even with string skipping, if you choose.
More importantly...
When you truly master a scale, you free up your brain from having to figure out “where the notes are”...
... and start thinking about more important stuff, like: what you want to play and how you want to play it.
Pentatonic Lead Guitar Lick Playing Tip #2: Practice Playing Sequences
Memorizing the pentatonic scale patterns is a good first step.
But as you start to get the scale patterns under your fingers, you should also begin practicing pentatonic scale patterns using scale sequences.
What are scale sequences?
It's where you take a melodic pattern and move it up through the scale one note at a time.
Watch this video that shows you how to use scales sequences to create cool lead guitar licks for your guitar solos:
Why practice creating scale sequences using pentatonic scales?
2 reasons:
- playing pentatonic lead guitar licks with scale sequences is more fun (and sounds a lot better) than simply playing the scale up and down. And because it's fun, you end up spending more time memorizing pentatonic scale patterns and you learn them on a deeper level.
- creating pentatonic lead guitar licks using scale sequences is closer to how guitar scales are often used in music.
Question: "Tom Hess, should I wait until I fully master playing pentatonic scale shapes in isolation before practicing them using scale sequences?"
Answer: No. Work on both at the same time. You can still continue practicing pentatonic scale patterns away from the guitar… while working on lick sequencing (and creating scale sequences) during your hands-on guitar practice time.
It's all part of the geometric approach I recommend for learning guitar.
Pentatonic Lead Guitar Lick Playing Tip #3: Learn Other Pentatonic Scales
One of my other favorite pentatonic scales on top of the typical classic rock/blues scale is the Hirajoshi scale.
The formula for the Hirajoshi scale is: 1 2 b3 5 b6. It's the same as the minor arpeggio with the added 9th (the 2nd note of the scale played one octave higher) and a b6th.
Watch this video to see/hear how awesome this pentatonic guitar scale sounds and check out the cool pentatonic lead guitar licks you can create using it:
Try this:
1. Practice playing the Hirajoshi scale and get used to its sound.
2. (As a cool fretboard visualization exercise) Figure out the five 2-note-per-string shapes for it. (Since the Hirajoshi scale has 5 notes, there are 5 shapes for it.) And yes, you should learn these pentatonic scale shapes just as well as you know the standard major and minor pentatonic scale patterns.
3. Take your standard pentatonic/blues guitar licks you know and transpose them to the Hirajoshi scale.
Why do this?
It's a great exercise for your ear, your fretboard visualization and creativity. As you transpose guitar licks from one pentatonic scale to another, you discover which sound you like more than others.
Another pentatonic scale that's very fun to play lead guitar licks with is the Kumoi scale.
The Kumoi scale is like the Hirajoshi, but with a regular 6th note.
Follow the same process to become familiar with this pentatonic scale and create guitar licks from it as I described for the Hirajoshi scale.
Pentatonic Lead Guitar Lick Playing Tip #4: Improve Your String Bending And Vibrato
Your pentatonic lead guitar licks will sound much better when you refine your string bending and vibrato techniques.
Why?
Because these 2 techniques make every part of your lead guitar playing better (no matter what style you play).
Here is how you can make your string bending and vibrato better:
Tip #1: When you practice string bends, play the note you intend to bend into first (as an unbent note) to get its pitch into your ears. Then, begin to bend the string up into the note you just played. Stop when your ear hears that you've reached the target note of the bend.
Tip #2: Wrap your thumb around the neck of the guitar (and get your elbow out a bit away from your body) to give yourself the best leverage to bend strings easily and in tune. Use the spot of your hand where the index finger connects to the palm to act as the pivot point.
Your hand should look like this when you're bending strings the right way:
Tip #3: Achieve a good balance between the speed of your vibrato and its width (depth). Faster vibrato should be wider. Slower vibrato can be narrower.
And regardless of the tempo, it's critically important that your note stays in tune when you apply vibrato in your guitar licks. This means: when you bend the string, you ought to release it all the way back down. This is the #1 most important attribute of great vibrato.
Watch this video to see and hear how to make your vibrato sound good:
Pentatonic Lead Guitar Lick Playing Tip #5: Learn How To 'Practice' Writing Lead Guitar Solos (And Improvising)
Most guitar players think that practicing lead guitar improvising = "playing over backing tracks".
It's not.
"Playing over backing tracks" has as much to do with practicing improvising as playing through a song on stage has to do with isolating and drilling the hardest parts of the song at home.
To practice lead guitar soloing, isolate a certain skill that goes into soloing and drill it over and over (for 15-20 minutes), just like you'd do with a difficult part in a song or guitar solo you're learning to play.
Practicing lead guitar phrasing is one example of this.
This approach makes you a better lead guitar player fast.
Now that you know how to improve your pentatonic lead guitar licks, the next step is to learn how to make your guitar playing consistent and reliable, so you can play at (or near) your best when it matters most. I show you how in my free eGuide: How To Play Everything You Know On Guitar Perfectly, Consistently And Reliably Like A Freaking Machine. Download it today and discover the guitar playing secrets most guitarists will never know.


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