Hello everybody!It is George Marios here. Welcome to the very first lesson of the "Rock fusion" column. Each lesson is separated in two sections:the "essential chords, scales and arpeggios" and the "innovative pentatonics".

In the first lessons we are gonna go through the basic chord voicings of the Maj 7th, the Minor 7th , the Minor 7 flat 5, the augmented 7th and the dominant 7th Chords. We are also gonna look at the relative scales and the relative arpeggios to every chord.

In the "innovative pentatonics" section, I have concentrated in two ways of playing unusual pentatonic patterns. The first one is with extreme 3 notes per string legato and the second one with economy/Sweep picking, mainly inspired by the amazing Frank Gambale. As you might have noticed I have given you three small workouts that are called "Primers". Those are easy patterns that are gonna help you master the more extended phrases that will be shown.

Lesson 1:Part 1

Download the pictures from Part 1.Click here

Lesson 1:Part 2

"Innovative Pentatonics Session"

The tree note per string phrase (Legato Workout)

This way of playing Pentatonic passages is really exciting and it sounds great. However, it can be really difficult to master it as it involves wild stretches and a great amount of stamina. This is why I would suggest you to: 1) Work on the "Primers" and 2) Practice the pattern from a different key such as A in order to avoid the enormous stretches that occur in the example, which is on F minor pentatonic scale. Next lessons we will see how we can add some "outside" notes so we can create those Fusion soundscapes.

The sweep picking pattern for pentatonic scale

It is really great to have a really smooth and fluid sound when playing Fusion and Rock guitar. It is a really nice and a dynamic way to create differences that are really added to the musical context. So, with the help of the almighty Frank Gambale I have given you a really nice pentatonic pattern which will be played with sweep picking, which means playing a downstroke when descending to different string and upstroke when ascending. In the next lessons we will see how to create groups and Fusion soundscapes.