Duration: 1:43 · 1080p Stream
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Why five notes are plenty. Before adding any new scale, this lesson reframes great soloing as phrasing — articulation, bends, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and vibrato — rather than escaping the "pentatonic box," and drives home the idea that practice makes permanent: whatever you repeat in the practice room is what comes out when you play, so make every phrase as musical as you can even inside a tiny box.
What follows is this lesson’s section of the Course Guide — you can read it here or in the full guide →
One of my biggest pet peeves is when a guitarist says that they need to “break out of the pentatonic box” in order to sound good. I think that’s nonsense. No one needs more than five notes to sound good. A good player can make a memorable solo from just two or three notes.
What you do need, more than anything else, is to practice getting more out of the pentatonic scale. Vary your articulation. Use bends, slides, hammer-ons, pull-offs, and vibrato. Don’t just play up and down the scale, and be mindful of which notes you emphasize.
One of the biggest keys to sounding good when you improvise is to sound good when you practice. Whatever you do repeatedly in the practice room is likely to come out in your playing when you let loose. So always take your time and make what you play when you’re working on exercises as musical as possible.
As Vince Lombardi said, “Practice makes permanent.”
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