When I was in high school, I learned the fact of life that some people are just more talented. My group of friends were Zep fanatics (I still am). I remember picking up guitar and was so proud when I figured out the riff to How Many More Times. In the meantime, my buddy had spent a week with his SG and a record player in his room and learned all of Zep I, including odd tunings (Black Mountainside). Maybe he was just more advanced than me but I was blown away. To this day I have trouble transposing what I hear to the guitar. Thanks for your help, Mark! I really enjoy your videos - very practical and straightforward!
@@immortalsun -- Don't rely on tabs or sheet music. Train your ear and you'll be able to figure out a *lot*. Tabs/sheet music is helpful for more complex songs, but a huge % of music uses 3-6 chords throughout a song. Simple once you know how they work together.
I'm leery of saying people are "talented" or not, because that puts it out of one's control, like it was "given" (or not given!) to them. I think it's about effort and interest, which go hand in hand and feed back on one another. Example: I've never been a good visual artist, because I never did much of it. At one point I took a drawing course and got significantly better...because I practiced. Afterwards I didn't continue, because I'm not that interested in it. (I absolutely appreciate it, but don't gravitate towards *doing* it.) On the other hand, music has always fascinated me, and I play with it all the time, including getting degrees in it, which took years of concentrated study. I wouldn't call my current level of ability (which I consider pretty solid) to be "talent" as much as years of practice. Am also a Zep fanatic!!
@@seejayjames Thanks for your comments. 1. Talent. Sure, some people pick up on things more quickly. It usually shows a connection to earlier work, as you point out. As a teacher/learner, nothing positive comes out of talking about how talented people are compared to yourself. Earnest, joyful practice wins. 2. Tab. The scourge of my existence. Love/hate as a teacher. Fact 1: 99/100 guitarists don't want to learn to read and will go elsewhere if you force them. Fact 2: Sometimes you need to tell someone what to do in a way they'll remember - give them a recipe. Enter tab. Fact 3: It's easy for late-beginners to get hooked on tab and "need it". Fact 4: Learning from tab isn't "sticky" and produces little skill improvement. I try to use tab sparingly. Love/hate. Again, thanks for your comments!
This is how i learn how to find the chord of the solo. First time it might take some time to get use to. But after a while you will definitely find it so easy. It not only help develop ear but it also help to memorize all chord on every strings
Something I've been playing with lately is putting my clip on guitar tuner onto the speaker of what I'm listening to and watching what notes appear, it seems to work, just gives you ideas.
oh he'll yeah, I've picked this tip up from my buddies very recently as well. we'll be improvising and I'm like what chords are those? he legit will look down at his tuner pedal and rattle off some notes for me. such a good cheat code
I've been learning using RU-vid tutorials and whatnot for like 3 months now, and this has to be one of the best and most useful things I've learnt yet! Thank you so much!
Little thought at the end is as big as the whole lesson. "Found it out" on my own years ago. You're the best Mr. Z. Z may be last... but you're first Mr. Z. Thanks for what you do for others!
For those of us from the LP/AM Radio era, we're all nodding and thinking "Ya, that's how I figured it out... only took ___ years! " Your directions will shortcut the process for a lot of new guitarists. Well done!
It's exactly what I still do. Well now I can just hear the note and can tell where song starts . But there are some songs where both minor and major will fit but ine sounds awsome and one just fits
When I started soloing after learning the basic scales major and minor my friend played rhythm and sang and a lot of songs I didn’t know so I would follow by ear not knowing what the recorded solo sounded like some I did but not all , well it was good for timing and knowing when to and not to play and develop my own style . Pros and cons . With every approach. I’m still hacking away 44 years later . Plus I played along with mtv many hours I wish I knew your approach then because I hunted and pecked and wasted a lot of time cheers mate !
Hi Mark, l just loved your instructions to how to instantly solo to any song, never thought about using the higher strings 1st-that's a great tip!!!! Also l enjoyed reading the comments from others, l believe that hard work and patience is a part of leaning guitar or any instrument, l do believe that some people are born with talent and it's a little easier for them etc-last thing l don't think tabs are necessarily bad, and of course if you can play by hear and write out whay you hear is great! I know a guy that can write out what hears on a cd Exactly as it was recorded and he can read music too. Thanks and again enjoyed the instructions, and reading the comments.
i was born with zero talent- still have zero talent but can play. according to a stranger at a party, for over an hour, she thought my playing was the radio- so I guess that I have progressed. taking lessons with a good teacher made a big difference. learning little things, then building on them is very important. learning all 5 shapes of the mPentatonic scale is essential- very easy to do if someone shows you how to do it. learn some theory- the musical alphabet, scales, chord construction, etc. Videos are fine but they are all over the place so you never really learn one thing well.
Maybe it’s because we are of a similar vintage Mark, but I found your soloing explanation engaging and insightful. 👏 👏 👏 I have been playing in bands for 40 years, but I wish that I had followed your example and worked at my ear training a bit more back in the day. It’s harder to ‘unlearn’ theory and be more intuitive I find. These tips are helpful so many thanks.
Thank you David! I know what you mean about "unlearning theory". I went through the opposite phase a bit later when I unlearned pentatonic soloing and hammer-ons and pull-offs and all the Jimmy Page tricks. I'm not sure when it dawned on me that it's all good - that anything musical is worth trying to incorporate into your play. And the biggest part for me was relaxing and trying to just have fun again. Thanks for watching and for the kind comment!
@@MarkZabel -- So interesting the different approaches. I'm a keyboardist primarily and have extensive theory background. Been playing more guitar recently and using some pentatonic scale ideas for riffs. I knew pentatonics backwards and forwards theory-wise, and use them a lot on keys, but on guitar they really open up a lot...and transposing is a snap, unlike on keys. BUT...it's easy to get stuck in "technique ruts" because certain ones are so easy. They're great to get a cool sound quickly, but can be hard to move past!
Man this has really helped me, I've been struggling to play lead and write solos for my band. I've been mainly using octaves for simple solos, so I must say thank you for sharing this information. Can't wait to start writing actual solos 🤘
Really cool idea, I’ll admit I was skeptical at 1st, but great demonstration. I appreciate you explaining how you got to the key of C and utilized one of the Pentatonic patterns. Definitely going into my tool box.
ive only been playing for 7months and have been so confused about why and how i have been youtubing these pentatonic box patterns and now you changed my life haha. I get it now. you sir are a great teacher. Cheers
This can work for Blues based songs and R&B and some classic rock - but Playing Minor AND major Pentatonics opens up much more possibilities. Also extending these scales linearly on the fret board, Once you are playing a number of other Genres of music though, a more thorough understanding of scales and Modes, as well as what note / intervals are contained in the Harmony will pay off. Good basic begginers tutorial, as you said - to get folks started. Keep up the great work.
Thanks Matthew! The idea here isn't dependent on using a phrase from minor or major pentatonic. It's all about using your ear rather than theory or tab or chord sheets to find things that sound good. One could easily use a major scale lick and (indirectly) learn all about modes too. But I wanted to stay theory-free for this one. Appreciate the comments brother!!
@@MarkZabel I hear you, a very good point. Being systematic , moving up by a fret at a time to "listen" for the notes to work is very useful to train the ear, after such familiarization many players will be amazed at how soon they will be able to recognize exactly what fret or key to go to in time. Ear training is a never ending process - after 40 years I m still amazed by folks who can name extended chords or complex chords just by hearing them. I still remember hours spent "dropping" the needle on a record for a section of a song, to figure it out - I arrived at the same technique -higher ? Lower in pitch? what string? Like amazing little mysteries of sound. Thanks for the reply.
To me, playing a guitar & being pitch perfect is a strange magical science.... i just love the bizzare open chords & odd shapes that Geordie Walker comes up with.
If your teacher hasn't already taught them to you... find a new teacher! If you can memorize the pentatonic scale in every position on the neck (and, by extension, the minor scale) you're going to improve your playing tenfold. The "no theory" label in this video is deceptive; you're learning theory, only fragmented. Figuring the entire scale by ear is possible, and it's what Mark suggests at the end of his video. But you reach the same goal faster by just looking up "how to play pentatonic scale all positions" on RU-vid and grinding it out.
Amazing how our musical lives paralleled growing up, Mark! I formed our high school rock band with two others and was reluctantly assigned the task of figuring out the guitar and bass parts (and eventually the second guitar part for an added rhythm guitarist/keyboard player. This is basically the same method I developed on my own through necessity (not so much the keyboard parts) and it works well!! Jim C.
i had the guitar for a really long time, i never played too well because i didn't imagine exactly how it would look like even tho i trained a lot, after watching this i feel like i have made a breakthrough and found myself jamming to some backtracks with no effort... man thank you
What a great tip for people like myself. I've always wondered why I'm out of tune when I try to solo. Now I know. It's about finding the correct key and staying within the Pentatonic Box of notes.
Wow !!! This is the BEST lesson on guitar soloing that I have ever seen. Love the fact that it uses ear training to help you connect to the instrument. Wish that I had learned this years ago !!! Great job !
I sometimes slide down the E string until I find the note that fits and compliments what’s playing and stop quickly at that point. Then I’m spot on to start jamming.
Makes sense! Especially if you have some experience already. For beginners, I found it a bit irritating that you call out one should know the notes of the (low) E string but then suggest the melody to start on the high e (of course same notes….but for a beginner, might be confusing) as well as calling out the note (eg try A#) but then you begin 4 frets higher (I understand because you start where the penta pattern ends). Just pointing out…still a great video. For me pattern 3 lowest 3 strings of the penta always works well to explore as you have a nice 3x2 box. Still, while everything you say is true it can still be very frustrating to try and figure out by ear…(modes, modal interchange, different tunings…), but yeah pop radio music generally works
Thank you so much this really helped me I played rhythm all my life and always wondered and wanted to improvise a little and never quite got it right so I stopped trying this theory you showed definitely is going to help so thank you
The first position you used for the phrase actually works fine and doesn't sound bad at all because it was all C minor. The C minor scale contains G minor pentatonic.
It works okay and you should feel free to use it. It's missing *the* key note in Cm - Eb, which is why it's not as strong as Cm Pentatonic. But absolutely you can use it and *should* use it if it sounds good to you. The "answer" doesn't matter, it's the process of listening with intent and developing your ears.
Your Video just filled a Gap in my understanding of the Pentatonic Scale and how to use it to solo. There is a lot that make much more sense now :) Thank you very much!
There's a smoother and quicker way to do this, rather than guessing during the playing of the song. You can slide up to the note in a single move until you find the key the song is in. That ons simple move and it sounds like you did it on purpose.
A friend has been trying to teach me this for a couple of years ......... but via theory. Thanks for the super quick guide. I'm going to give it a try!
This is a brilliant video . Although I already knew this from another video , it explains it in its simplest form . Although I don’t learn songs note for note . You can jam along to your favourite songs this way. Once you grasp this a little theory will help . Minor and major pentatonic scales so you can go up and down the neck . Well done Mark
What I've found is that can you use the pentatonic scales over whichever chords are CURRENTLY being played. For example.. if the chord progression is A C D ... use the A pentatonic scale to solo while A chord is being played, then immediately slide into C when C is being played..etc.
Very good explanation and nice vid! I have learned playing guitar by ear only (I am playing for over 30 years) - with help of that, I can play all songs once I´ve understood the chord structure and play licks or solo lines to them. I am playing in a band where three members can play like this (including me), the other ones sometimes do not recognize if a chord sounds wrong, or the vocal line does not fit to the rest. It has a lot of to do with repetition and routine in my opinion. I am in the lucky situation of directly recognizing the chords of a new song, it is like having in mind what an Am, a D7 oder an F sounds like. Once you have found the key, transposing the song is no problem. Currently, I cannot hear a song without thinking in it´s chords. ;-) I cannot explain it, but once heard, the chords are saved to my memory. I am the one who doesn´t need any chords or notes. I am wondering, because I cannot state a brilliant memory related to other things (telepone numbers, birthdays, etc.).
Very nice anecdote. I'd bet that you spent significant effort in listening for structure a long time ago and you found your own way to organize it efficiently inside your head. I try to do this on a weekly basis - listen to several songs or even backing tracks and then play along (or sing) making sure I anticipate when the changes are coming. It's a developed skill.
@@MarkZabel I am doing that too - choosing a random backing track and play to it - as a challenge how fast I can to adapt to a new song. You´re right, I have started long time ago by playing to my favorite songs (I started on an acoustic guitar with one string only and tried to play vocal or solo line on single notes). This helped me to find whole and half steps in the beginning. I cannot read music - I do not know which single tones I am playing on the 12th fret on the D string (ok...I could count it^^) - but I can hear if it fits or not. It´s not about music theory...it´s by feeling only.
@@MarkZabel you have instantly opened a door for me with that video. I love playing the guitar bit feel I was not progressing for years. Thanks Mark - so valuable!
That is a good systematic approach. My general problem was to not being able to tune the guitar to correct pitch needed to follow a record/cassette. I tuned by ear to the pitch I liked and to the string feeling I wanted. Usually I was off (low) a half tone, to one and a half tone. So I was confused how many rock songs didn't use open E or Open A as a base, when it's obviously a smarter move. - Mostly it was either them tuning different or me doing it.
